Central Ohio Parkinson Society

A Sense Of Perspective By Dr. George Paulson, M.D.

Feb 23, 2003

We are always looking for the newest advance, what is "hot," an exciting possibility for surgery or medicine. In fact, however, some of the greatest advances of the past 50 years can be overlooked. They seemed so inevitable, so gradual. Among these are:

Development of Support Groups, like COPS.

There was a day only 50 years ago when there might have been a group for "heart" but not yet one for Alzheimer's. How can one measure what support groups have meant locally and nationally for fund raising and direction of research, for patient education and protection, even for care? You can't measure it, but you can see it and feel it.

Big Science

Vonevar Bush (no relation to George W.) persuaded Franklin Roosevelt that the government should get into research in a big way, although some disagreed vigorously. THe Manhattan Project (atomic bomb) came from that, but so did the National Institutes of Health, the genome project, etc. It isn't easy to preserve freedom and have government support, but if any country can do it in science, it is the good old USA.

The Rise of Controlled, Monitored, Multi-institutional Drug Studies

A medicine can no longer be released unless it is both safe and efficacious. The need for such proof has pushed individual and university groups together to accomplish the studies.


Genetics

The 20th century has been called the "century of the gene." We will not be content as a people until we not only know what genetic factors play a role in all of life and health, but also how to modify those factors.

Imaging

The CT and MRI, and soon selective PET scan imaging is, I feel, the most exciting advances in and for diseases of the nervous system that has occurred in my lifetime.

The End of "nihilism"

When I came along there were few, if any, treatments for most major neuroligical disorders. Not so now, and the doctors now expect to be able to help in most of the diseases we once almost looked away from.
The individual, doctor patient, cargiver, scientist, is still important, of course, but we need our groups and we need our sustained advances. In every single one of the "advances" I listed, PD has benefited. Sometimes, less obviously, as in imaging to rule out other diseases and to localize surgery precisely. For some we are just at the threshold, as in genetics, which has done so much. And, for some, it will always be the same: the individual continues to matter, matter most of all. You, also, have a part to play.

*Dr. Paulson is a retired Director of the Madden/NPF Center of Excellence for Parkinson's Disease at the Ohio State University.