Letter from Dr. Mary Anne Whelan
Re: Biden’s Mental Status
The recent performance of Biden in the debate of June 28 has given rise to much concern about the president’s cognitive status. Recently it has been suggested, by neurologists and others, that the president has Parkinson’s disease. A starting point should be an understanding of what that implies.
Parkinson’s disease is a neurological condition generally considered as first described by James Parkinson as “Shaking Palsy” in 1813 (though a late 17th-century description also exists, in Spanish). Now, as then, it remains a condition defined by its symptoms, and by observation and examination of the person. It cannot be diagnosed by an imaging study such as a CT scan or an MRI, or by laboratory findings, though more recently some lab findings have been associated with it. They are not, however, diagnostic.
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