Parkinson’s UK comments on new drawing test to assess people with Parkinson’s disease

A paper published today in Frontiers in Neurology outlines a trial of a drawing test that could help assess people with Parkinson’s. In the trial, volunteers were asked to draw a spiral. By analyzing how long it took them to draw the spiral and how hard they pressed on the paper with the pen, researchers could not only tell which volunteers had Parkinson’s, but how far their condition had progressed.

Commenting on the paper, David Dexter, Deputy Research Director at Parkinson’s UK, said:

Current tests for Parkinson’s cannot accurately measure how advanced someone’s condition is. This can impact on the ability to select the right people for clinical research, which is essential to develop new and better treatments for Parkinson’s. The test could also measure the condition’s progression.

This new test could provide a more accurate assessment by measuring a wider range of features that may be affected by Parkinson’s, such as co-ordination, pressure, speed and cognitive function.

If proven to be effective, this could be a stepping stone to better, more successful clinical trials for Parkinson’s.