when still working at the muhammad ali center about 10 years ago i asked one of my fellows dr. holly shill to look at our pd population change from diagnosis to 25 years. first thing i want you to notice is that 25-year range. she found after looking at the unified parkinson's disease rating scale in more than 600 patients and 3 000 office visits several important things. 1) diagnosis of pd usually occurred at a score of about 25. 2) levodopa produced about a 12-point benefit a dopamine agonist about an 8-point benefit 3) patients with prominent tremor did better than patients with no tremor. we did not look at gait specifically but we did look at "disability " which we defined as 12 hours of effort to get 8 hours of pay. this had nothing to do with a need for a walker or wheelchair. on average people reached this point or a score around 60 at an average of 12. 2 years after diagnosis. i am sorry i cannot give you an average duration to a need for assistance with walking but hope that 12 years to retirement is good news.
i am 52 and have just been diagnosed with parkinson's. how long can a person work before the symptoms get too bad?