ABSTRACT
Parkinson’s disease is often described by sufferers as a living death. This description follows many years of physical and psychological hardship and dependence on medication, accompanied by a loss of independence and mobility. The illness involves loss of short-term memory, and in the elderly is accompanied by dementia and disorientation. Increasingly, it is an illness which is associated with a younger age group where it appears to follow a physical or mental trauma. I have in my mind vivid mental pictures of the suffering of a young soldier who, when dancing, suddenly stops, is rooted to the ground and cannot move. Only a few years before he had been on active service. The years in between have seen him pensioned out of the army, trying to adjust to a life where his limbs move unpredictably. His has low self-esteem because of a loss of fitness and libido.
