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James Parkinson’s chimera: Syndrome or disease?

Kempster, PA; Hurwitz, B; Lees, AJ; (2017) James Parkinson’s chimera: Syndrome or disease? Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh , 47 (2) pp. 190-195. 10.4997/JrCPe.2017.220. Green open access

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Abstract

It is 200 years since James Parkinson published An Essay on the Shaking Palsy. While his monograph continues to be acclaimed for its precedence and clarity of description, what is often overlooked is the originality of Parkinson’s ideas. Here we show that he appreciated the weakness of the systematic 18th century nosologies, which presupposed that medical species, the building blocks of these Linnaean taxonomic schemes, were as distinct as plant and animal species; and that Parkinson made a conceptual leap about combinations of clinical phenomena in recurring patterns, now recognised to be one of the germs of neurological thinking about syndromes. The Essay’s written style underpins another aspect of significance to contemporary neurological practice – an inherent intellectual humility. In this commemorative year we locate the continuing importance of the related notions of syndrome and disease in successive frameworks of knowledge about the shaking palsy. Syndrome and disease are interpreted as dual character concepts, one clinically-based and the other restricted to pathophysiological causation. They both remain fundamental to understanding Parkinson’s syndrome-disease today.

Type: Article
Title: James Parkinson’s chimera: Syndrome or disease?
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.4997/JrCPe.2017.220
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.4997/JrCPe.2017.220
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: James Parkinson Parkinson’s disease, nosology, syndrome
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Clinical and Movement Neurosciences
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1566429
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