A shortage of neurologists means U.S. patients with Parkinson's disease often have limited access to the doctors who are trained to care for them, a new study found.
Researchers studied 685,116 people with Parkinson's disease enrolled in the government Medicare health plan in 2019, the last year for which complete data was available.
Forty percent did not see a neurologist at all that year, and only 9.1% saw movement disorder specialists, who are neurologists that specialize in Parkinson's disease, according to a report published on Monday in npj Parkinson's Disease.
Nearly 30% of patients relied on primary care providers for management of their Parkinson's disease.
Few patients received recommended services such as physical, occupational, or speech therapy. Of the nearly 53% diagnosed with depression, only 1.8% had a clinical psychology visit.
People of color and rural residents were least likely to access a neurologist or therapy services, the study also found.
The Parkinson's Foundation estimates that one million people in the U.S. are living with the disease, a number expected to rise to 1.2 million by 2030.
There are currently only 660 movement disorder specialists in the United States, a mere six of them practicing in rural areas, according to the Foundation.
"These findings underscore the need for better training of general neurologists and other care providers treating people with Parkinson's disease," study leader James Beck, chief scientific officer for the Parkinson's Foundation, said in a statement.
Read more about Parkinson's disease on Reuters.com
This newsletter was edited by Bill Berkrot.
