Scotland sees soaring Parkinson’s rate

News

Author: Roisin McCormackPublished: 9 January 2020

Parkinson's LifePrep: Parkinson's LifeCook: Parkinson's LifeServes:

Person with Parkinson's and carer

The number of drugs being prescribed for people living with Parkinson’s in Scotland, UK, has increased by more than a quarter.

National Health Service (NHS) figures, published by the Scottish Conservative party, show that the number of items being dispensed for the condition have leapt by 28% – from 260,355 in 2010 to 333,167 in 2019.

The sharp rise is thought to be a consequence of Scotland’s ageing population and has prompted calls from bodies, including Parkinson’s UK, for government action to ensure the NHS can cope with the increasing number of Parkinson’s cases.

Annie Macleod, director of Parkinson’s UK Scotland, said: “Over the next decade we expect to see numbers increase by a fifth.”

She added that reasons for such a spike could include “growing numbers of people living with more complex Parkinson’s, or changes to the ways that specialists are managing Parkinson’s”.

To read more on this topic click here.


Read more:

Over a quarter of people living with Parkinson’s were initially misdiagnosed, study finds

Queen Elizabeth II honours UK university for Parkinson’s research

Go Back

Share this story

Comments


Related articles


Global update

Sign up to be part of ‘world-first’ global health study into Parkinson’s disease

Innovative smartphone app to gather data for global health study

READ MORE
Dance-for-Parkinson's

Advances

Dance for Parkinson’s: tune in to English National Ballet live stream

ENB live broadcast explores the impact of Dance for Parkinson’s

READ MORE
Maria De Leon standing in front of 'Latino Victory' poster

Interviews

“I struggled to find material about Parkinson’s in Spanish”

Dr Maria De León on breaking down barriers in treatment and research

READ MORE