Recruitment for the PREDICT-PD study has reached over 3,500 participants

The PREDICT-PD study goal is to recruit 10,000 healthy volunteers so that they can carry out research on the early stages of Parkinson’s.

Parkinson’s is the second most common degenerative disease of the brain after Alzheimer’s. However, the number of people getting Parkinson’s is growing faster than any neurological condition and it is estimated that it will affect >14 million people worldwide by 2040. Once the diagnosis is made, there is no cure; there are only treatments to reduce the symptoms.

“PREDICT-PD is a ground-breaking project using simple tests to identify people at high risk of Parkinson’s disease before the symptoms appear. Research suggests that problems including loss of sense of smell, sleep problems, constipation, anxiety and depression may occur many years before the movement problems of Parkinson's are clear” Professor Schrag.

Dr Noyce added to this by stating that “If predictions can be made about who is going to get diagnosed with Parkinson’s, treatments may become available for those in the early stages that could slow or prevent the condition progressing. This would be a major step towards a cure and could have huge knock-on implications for dementia and other age-related diseases of the brain”.

The team also welcomed Dr Zehra Yilmaz in mid-May 2019, as a research study coordinator at UCL. The team continue to present results from the PREDICT-PD study at various conferences and meetings internationally.

Further information

• Participating in the PREDICT-PD study
• Recent publications
• Professor Schrag's profile
• Dr Noyce's profile