The Servier pharmaceutical company and the Interregional Public Organization the Society for Assistance to Patients with Parkinson’s Disease, Huntington’s Disease, and Other Disabling Movement Disorders (“Society for Assistance to Patients with Movement Disorders”) have launched a portal for people suffering from this disease. This is the first specialized information resource in Russia for the patients and their friends and families.
About Parkinson’s portal (oparkinsone.ru) contains information about the disease, the treatment methods, as well as recommendations on living with the disease. On the website, patients and their friends and family can learn about the specifics of the diet and food intake, useful gymnastics for training muscles and improving mobility, and the ways to prepare for a medical appointment.
The resource is made to be convenient for the patients: it has minimalistic design, uses large font and contrasting colors, and the information is presented in the form of simple tips. All materials have been checked by the expert community for correctness, relevance and compliance with the latest scientific and medical data published in recognized open sources.
The portal also contains addresses of schools for patients with Parkinson’s disease. In the future, it is planned to include a section with videos in which doctors will talk about various aspects of the development of the disease and give recommendations for maintaining and improving the quality of life.
“Parkinson’s disease is a debilitating disorder that inevitably requires lifestyle adaptation. Such initiatives as the portal About Parkinson’s, aimed at informing patients about the disease and supporting them in their daily affairs, are certainly very important and help patients significantly improve their quality of life,” said Natalia Fedorova, MD, professor of the department of neurology of the Russian Medical Academy of Continuing Professional Education of the Ministry of Health, member of the Presidium of the National Society for the Study of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders, the Chair of the Society for Assistance to Patients with Parkinson’s Disease, Huntington’s Disease, and Other Disabling Movement Disorders.
“It must be simple, clear and done with loving care: this is exactly the attitude that patients with Parkinson’s disease expect, and I would like to hope that this is exactly what our project turned out to be. When we created this portal together with the Society for Assistance to Patients with Movement Disorders, we proceeded from both the needs of patients and the best international and Russian practices in the treatment of the disease. In addition to properly selected drug therapy, the information presented on the website can become an indispensable assistant for patients and their families in slowing the progression of the disease,” said Yana Rostovtseva, Servier’s managing director in Russia.
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the most common neurodegenerative movement disorder. This is a debilitating disease that requires lifestyle adaptation. According to approximate estimates, there are about 210,000 patients with PD in Russia. The disease occurs most often in the elderly: in people over 60 years of age, in 1% of cases, in people after 75 years of age, in 2-3% of cases or more. Clinical symptoms include bradykinesia, tremor and stiffness of movements. PD is characterized by a gradual loss of dopaminergic neurons and the accumulation of alpha-synuclein protein in the brain. The existing treatment methods suggest dopaminergic replacement therapy, which compensates for the loss of dopaminergic neurons and allows to reduce the severity of motor symptoms in patients with PD to some extent, but it does not stop or slow down the neurodegenerative process.
