Hi, i just wanted to find out.
My father has not being diagnosed as yet. He is waiting to be referred for tests for PD.
The only symptoms he has is that he has a tremor in his hands and sometimes feels his writing gets smaller when he writes for a while.
The question i have, is PD passed down from your parents.
My dad’s mum had a tremor, also his brother and sister have a tremor in their hands. They all don’t have any other symptoms.
All of them have had this tremor for 10 years in their lives with no deterioration.
Hi @James25. Welcome to our friendly forum. It’s really hard to be waiting for tests and a diagnosis and we hope that results will come soon. Only a very small number of people inherit Parkinson’s. Most of the time the causes are unknown. You can read more about this here. Other forum members may have some experiences to share with you.
This issue is fresh in my mind for two reasons: Firstly I’ve only just (a few weeks ago) been diagnosed with PD - or “Parkys” as I’m finding some people call it here - so my consultation is very clear in my mind. Secondly, my concern before that consultation was that my problems were something much worse!
Both my mother & younger brother died of brain tumours. As well as the MRI showing that wasn’t the problem (phew!; the consultant confirmed there is no known genetic component there) his estimate was that roughly 1 in 10 PD cases might have … a generational prescedent / 9 in 10 not.
Only one person’s guess, but I liked having a number.
As Martin’s consultant says, about 10% of PD cases have a genetic component. Young onset (diagnosed before 50) is also more likely to have a genetic factor. If you have several people in your family with PD it’s highly likely that it is inherited, though it doesn’t sound like it is necessarily PD if the only symptom is tremor.
The other 90%of cases are idiopathic (of unknown cause).
