How many people have Parkinson's?

How many people have Parkinson's?

Neal Hermanowicz (Director of the Movement Disorders Program) gives expert video advice on: What are some of the other names for Parkinson's?; Who is at most risk for getting Parkinson's? and more...

It's not an uncommon disease. It's not exactly known, oddly enough, but the estimates are somewhere in the ballpark of a million people being affected in the United States with Parkinson's Disease. It may be somewhat less, it may be somewhat more, but that's roughly a correct number in the United States. We don't have any kind of formal registry as we do with some other diseases. There has been an effort, particularly here in California, to create such a registry to enable us to know how many cases there are in certain parts of the country. For example, are there some parts where it's more common than others? This would also enable doing what's called epidemiological research, looking at issues of how populations are affected by Parkinson's Disease and with that, what may be other risk factors associated with Parkinson's Disease. But right now, we don't really have that database formally established.