[Progress in diagnosis and treatment of juvenile parkinsonism]

The diagnosis and treatment of juvenile parkinsonism (JP) is described. There was a high incidence of familial JP (58.1%), and its inheritance pattern was usually an autosomal recessive type. The patients with JP presented with improvement of parkinsonian symptoms following sleep and dystonic posture of the feet as specific signs. The tremor was a fine postural, and impairment of postural reflex was prominent. In the treatment of JP, it is important to control the wearing-off phenomenon and the dopa-induced choreic dyskinesia usually occurring in the extremities. A small dose of levodopa with decarboxylase inhibitor has to be carefully administered several times a day. The clinical course of JP is very slowly progressive compared with that of Parkinson's disease.