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Twin study of Parkinson disease

From the Department of Neurology, the Mount Sinai School of Medicine (Dr. Duvoisin), New York, NY, and the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke (Drs. Eldridge, Williams, Nutt, and Calne), Bethesda, MD.

zero concordance for Parkinson disease was found in the first 12 monozygotic twin pairs examined in an ongoing twin study. One co-twin (subject without Parkinson disease) had essential tremor, another had cerebral vascular disease, and a third was an alcoholic. Cigarette smoking appeared to be less frequent in the probands than in the co-twins (11.9 versus 16.1 pack-years). There was also evidence of premorbid personality differences between probands and co-twins dating back to late adolescence or early adult years. These preliminary findings suggest that genetic factors do not play a major role in the etiology of Parkinson disease and point to a prodromal onset of the disease as early as late adolescence or early adult life.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Roger C. Duvoisin, M.D., Professor and Chairman, Department of Neurology, CMDNJ-Rutgers Medical School, P.O. Box 101, Piscataway, NJ 08854.

Supported in part by the Clinical Research Center for Parkinson's and Allied Diseases, NIH Grant No. NS 11631, and by a grant from the United Parkinson Foundation.

Presented at the thirty-first annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, Chicago, IL, April 1979.

Accepted for publication April 15, 1980.

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