Treatment of parkinsonism

Although the mortality of Parkinsonism is negligible, it is one of the major causes of progressive and often pitiful disability in the elderly. Treatment of the condition, whether medical or surgical, is still only palliative. The successes and limitations of the various forms of treatment are discussed. Despite the spectacular gains which have been achieved during the past 25 years by sterotactic thalamotomy and treatment with levodopa, the patient's disabilities tend to progress slowly and the fundamental enigma of Parkinson's disease and of its cure still awaits solution.