Journal of Parkinson's Disease

31/08/2026

In his Physiology of Taste in 1825 Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin already eloquently described the crucial interplay between smell and taste for an optimal eating experience.
In Parkinson's disease the loss of smell can contribute to changing eating habits and suboptimal intake. In a new study the group of Roongroj Bhidayasiri at the Chulalongkorn University Centre of Excellence for Parkinson's Disease & Related Disorders explores the eating habits and their implications in People with Parkinson's Disease. They draw our attention to:
- female gender, dysphagia, and dyskinesias as predictors of an underweight status
- poor flavour perception as a contributor to weight loss and malnutrition
- the 2024 UK National Osteoporosis Guideline, which now explicitly recognises PD as a clinical risk factor for osteoporosis and fragility fractures with a role for nutritional optimisation
- diets reflecting compensatory adaptations to dysphagia rather than balanced nutritional choices

An important take home message for me is that it would be a good idea, if possible, to engage the advice of dietitians more and earlier in our patients.

An interesting initiative in Belgium to help address these issues is Parki's Kookatelier that developed a specific cookbook. They also organize cooking workshops like the one I took part in several years ago during the annual meeting of the patient organization Vlaamse Parkinson Liga vzw.

You can read the full text here:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1877718X261445952
by Onanong Phokaewvarangkul, Narumol Sukmueng, Panthitra Kuwattanasuchati, Kanyawat Sanyawut, Naruemon Rattanapitak and Roongroj Bhidayasiri

Highlight written by Bruno Bergmans

Bastiaan Bloem

21/08/2026

𝗪𝗲𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿: 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗻’𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮, 𝟵 𝗦𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲, 𝟱-𝟲𝗽𝗺 𝗕𝗦𝗧, 𝟭𝟮-𝟭𝗽𝗺 𝗘𝗧.

It is estimated that roughly half of people with Parkinson’s will experience cognitive changes, and some of these individuals may go on to develop dementia.

In this webinar, Edinburgh University’s Professor Tilo Kunath will be joined by an expert panel to discuss the two types of dementia most closely associated with Parkinson’s: Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD) and Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB). The panel will discuss what these conditions are, how they compare, and the current research landscape.

🔗 Register to attend live here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/webinar-parkinsons-and-dementia-tickets-1996625559797?aff=JOPD

15/08/2026

As a tribute to the sorely missed late Regina Katzenschlager (you can find her In Memoriam here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1877718X261456375 -bibr5-1877718X261456375-1), it is fitting to highlight the very insightful and posthumously published article she wrote together with Roberto Cilia about the use of Mucuna pruriens in Parkinson's disease. Mucuna pruriens or the Velvet bean is a tropical vine that readily grows in Africa and tropical Asia. Its beans contain up to 9.5% levodopa.

In the clinic from time to time we get questions about the use of alternative or more natural treatments for Parkinson's disease. This nuanced article provides an excellent science-based framework to address these questions.

It is appalling to realize that an essential drug like levodopa is not available or unaffordable in many countries in the world. In low and middle income countries Mucuna could therefore be seen as a more readily available and more affordable alternative to levodopa. In countries where levodopa is readily available the authors caution that Mucuna should ideally only be used in the context of clinical trials. Despite the high content of levodopa in Mucuna beans there are multiple reasons to exercise caution:
- as Mucuna preparations contain the same active product as levodopa preparations, there is an inherent risk of developing the same side effects like hallucinations and psychosis, impulse control disorders and dopamine dysregulation syndrome as well as motor complications
- due to the lack of oversight on Mucuna containing dietary supplements (as compared to levodopa containing medications) a huge variability in the levodopa content of these supplements can influence the clinical effects and can knock a precarious equilibrium out of balance
- due to the lack of long term clinical trials, the long term safety has not been proven yet
- deadly toxicity has been reported under exceptional circumstances
- no approval by FDA or EMA
- concomitant compounds in the preparations might also induce side effects
- although the most recent clinical trial did not demonstrate a significant difference in side effects (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1877718X251383721), the early years of levodopa have taught us that the presence of a decarboxylase inhibitor in the commercially available products is important to reduce gastrointestinal and cardiovascular side effects and improve bioavailability of the active compound. Mucuna supplements typically do not contain a decarboxylase inhibitor.

It is especially worthwhile to learn from how the authors engage in an open discussion in the clinic and what practical tips they provide.

You can read the full text of the Mucuna article in Journal of Parkinson's Disease here:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1877718X261442075
by Roberto Cilia and Regina Katzenschlager

PS: Another product that generates considerable interest is cannabis-based oil. A study just came out in Movement Disorders that showed no benefit with regard to pain and other non-motor symptoms: https://movementdisorders.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mds.70449

Highlight written by Bruno Bergmans

Bastiaan Bloem

Legends to the illustrations:

Mucuna pruriens (velvet bean), botanical illustration from the Japanese agricultural encyclopedia Seikei Zusetsu vol. 18, page 043 (1804) at Leiden University Library. Public-domain image.

Mucuna pruriens (velvet bean), botanical illustration from The Botanical Register, vol. 24 (1838), based on a drawing by Sarah Ann Drake. Public-domain image.

07/08/2026

Nominations for Cure Parkinson’s annual Tom Isaacs Award are now open! 🏆

The Tom Isaacs Award recognises a researcher who is making a meaningful difference to people affected by Parkinson’s by working with them, not just for them. It celebrates impactful research and genuine collaboration.

Help us recognise a researcher or clinician who has had a positive impact on the lives of people with Parkinson’s by nominating them for this award at:

The Tom Isaacs Award is presented annually to a researcher who has shown the greatest impact on the lives of people living with Parkinson’s in their work.

04/08/2026

⏳ Published in JPD, the most in-depth analysis ever undertaken of Parkinson’s drug clinical trials has shown how, for the first time, research largely aimed at slowing or stopping the condition has overtaken that of symptom management.

Find out more: https://healthcaretoday.com/article/parkinsons-drug-clinical-trials-focus-on-slowing-the-condition

Read the study: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1877718X261454154

The most comprehensive analysis of Parkinson’s drug clinical trials has shown a shift towards disease-modifying research.

04/08/2026

📕 AUGUST ISSUE. Featuring Review articles on:

Gastroparesis in Parkinson's disease: Diagnostic and clinical implications for optimizing pharmacological treatment, by Damiens et al.

Is continuous dopaminergic delivery still a major goal to be achieved in the treatment of Parkinson's disease?, by Di Lazzaro et al.

Advances in sex-specific single-cell transcriptomic profiling in Parkinson's disease, by Hoof & Schulze-Hentrich

🔗 Explore the issue: https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/pkna/16/5

Table of contents for Journal of Parkinson’s Disease, 16, 5

31/07/2026

Several AI applications are making our lives more comfortable, whether you use the Merlin app from Cornell Lab of Ornithology to identify the songs of your backyard birds or whether automated number plate recognition (ANPR) allows you to easily enter and exit a parking garage.
These are examples of discriminative and predictive AI that use machine learning for pattern recognition.
The advent of large language models has allowed for a boom in generative AI (GenAI) that is more and more entering our daily lives, and now also a the patient-clinician relationship.
A very interesting new study by the group of Charlotte Blease at Uppsala University titled "ChatGPT knows my Parkinson's" sheds more light on the use of GenAI by people with Parkinson’s disease.
Through an international online survey they found the majority (65%) had used GenAI, but only a minority of this group (40%) had used it in regard to their Parkinson's disease.
Uses were diverse:
- for informational purposes to learn more about their Parkinson's disease
- to help them better interpret their symptoms
- to prepare structured overviews for clinic visits
Also readworthy is a thought-provoking editorial in BMJ by Charlotte Blease about the evolution that some people would more freely discuss sensitive issues with an AI tool than with a possibly judging human being.

GenAI is here to stay and will be increasingly used by patients. It will be important to acknowledge this in our clinics. The increased and more readily accessible in-depth information can be enriching for self-management of chronic diseases like Parkinson's disease. On the other hand, it will be important to discuss privacy issues and the flaws of these tools. As many (some famous) examples demonstrate, GenAI can generate incorrect information. Information given by GenAI can be biased, can confirm rather than challenge opinions and can oversimplify complex and nuanced medical problems, depending on prompting. This is especially cause for concern and could possibly even be harmful, if some people would solely rely on GenAI output for second opinions regarding important treatment decisions. A lot of food for thought.

You can read the full text here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1877718X261445949 -1877718X261445949

Highlight written by Bruno Bergmans

Bastiaan Bloem

20/07/2026

Dysphagia is an important albeit underestimated symptom in people with Parkinson's disease (PD). An elegant new study in the Journal of Parkinson's disease tracks the progression of this often overlooked symptom.

It draws our attention to:
- the presence of dysphagia already in the earlier stages of the disease
- the progressive decline in swallowing function
- the underestimation of dysphagia by individuals with PD themselves, as demonstrated by the discrepancy between the deteriorating objective measurements versus the stable results on the patient-reported outcome scale EAT-10

Dysphagia can have very serious consequences: ranging from aspiration (pneumonia) over malnutrition to ineffective medication uptake.
In presentations I often refer to this paper from the group of Tobias Warnecke: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41531-022-00421-9.
Especially the supplementary videos poignantly illustrate how swallowing difficulties can contribute to delayed-on, dose failures and increased off-episodes.
In a DBS patient when the Implantable Pulse Generator (IPG) is nearing the end of its life, it is important to more regularly check the IPG to avoid the life-threatening emergency of sudden IPG failure. Although DBS will not typically improve swallowing, when an IPG fails, also swallowing can deteriorate.
There is now also preliminary evidence that continuous dopaminergic stimulation can improve swallowing, as illustrated in this paper by the group of Yosh*taka Nagai: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590112525000829?via%3Dihub

The current study in Journal of Parkinson's Disease reminds us:
- to pay attention to dysphagia, also in the earlier disease stages
- to check for dysphagia with objective measurements like Flexible Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing (FEES) or Videofluoroscopic Swallow Study (VFSS)
- of the importance of proactive, individualized and above all sustained speech and language therapy. Future prospective studies are needed to clarify the long-term impact of sustained dysphagia therapy on disease progression and quality of life.

You can read the full-text here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1877718X261420003

Highlight written by Bruno Bergmans

Bastiaan Bloem

14/07/2026

𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿 𝗼𝗻 '𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗝𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆'? 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗿𝘆!

You can catch up on the full webinar recording and access all relevant links and discussion points in the Sage Perspectives 'Webinar follow-up' blog post:

🔗

Further resources for those attended our latest webinar, or any researchers who are looking to publish a neurology paper.

13/07/2026

💊 New Free-to-Read Special Issue: Roads towards a faster development of new pharmacotherapies for Parkinson's disease

"This special issue ... brings together a set of manuscripts that collectively map the field's most important opportunities and bottlenecks, from patient priorities and therapeutic pipelines to trial design, biomarkers, regulators, and target-specific treatment needs. The common message across these contributions is that faster progress will ... depend on better alignment between patient needs, mechanistic insights, trial methodology, regulatory pathways, and the practical realities of drug development for a disease characterized by substantial clinical and pathobiological heterogeneity."

This issue features an Editorial by Tiago Outeiro, Bastiaan Bloem, Lorraine Kalia, and Joaquim Ferreira, as well as Review articles on:

What medicines do people with Parkinson's disease want?, by McFarthing, Outeiro, and Bastos.

Gaps in the Parkinson's disease therapeutic clinical pipeline: A focus on approaches targeting disease pathobiology, by Koros, Fiske, and Stefanis.

🆓 🔗 Read free here: https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/pkna/16/2_suppl

Table of contents for Journal of Parkinson’s Disease, 16, 2_suppl