Evolution of Epidemiological Studies in Movement Disorders

In celebration of the 40-year legacy of Movement Disorders Journal (MDJ), this historical reflection traces the evolution of epidemiological research in movement disorders through the lens of papers published in MDJ from 1986 through 2025. Over four decades, the discipline has transformed from clinic-based descriptive observations into population-based methodologies, with both genetic and environmental factors taken into consideration. The initial decade (1986-1995) established foundational measures of movement disorders and identified key environmental risks. These clinic-based studies expanded during the second decade (1996-2005) into door-to-door community prevalence studies and health services research utilizing administrative databases. The third decade (2006-2015) marked a paradigm shift driven by genetic epidemiology (particularly the mapping of global LRRK2 variants), gene-environment interactions, and the characterization of prodromal biomarkers. The modern era (2016-2025) has embraced race-ethnicity diversity, pharmacoepidemiology, and advanced causal inference methods to control for time-varying factors. Together, these epidemiological works in MDJ chart a historical trajectory toward precision medicine, delivering the infrastructure to define at-risk populations and deploy trial-ready cohorts for disease-modification trials. © 2026 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.