Sex Differences in Parkinson’s Disease: A Narrative Review

Sex differences in epidemiology, clinical features, and therapeutical responses are emerging in several movement disorders, even though they are still not widely recognized. Parkinson’s disease (PD) is not an exception: men and women suffering from PD have different levels of disability. Research has been performed using multiple databases and scientific journals; this review summarizes the available evidence on sex differences in PD regarding epidemiology, risk factors, genetics, clinical phenotype, social impact, and therapeutic management. The role of hormones in determining such differences is also briefly discussed. The results confirm the existence of differences between men and women in PD; women have a higher risk of developing disabling motor complications and non-motor fluctuations compared to men, while men have a higher risk of developing cognitive impairment, postural instability, and gait disorders. Improving our knowledge in these differences may result in the implementation of strategies for disease-tailored treatment and management.

• Publication year

  2024

• Venue

  Neurological Therapeutics

• Publication date

  2024-12-04

• Fields of study

  Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1007/s40120-024-00687-6PMID 39630386PMCID 11762054
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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