But even though this lack of dopamine has a link to the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, this knowledge doesn’t help in finding a cure for the condition. As Dr. Echo Tan, a neurologist in the Cedars-Sinai Movement Disorders Program explained on the Cedars Sinai blog, even though “the longtime notion is that it’s dopamine” has a direct affect on developing symptoms of Parkinson’s, “it’s a lot more complicated than that.” Tan adds that “without finding the real reason behind Parkinson’s, we can’t find a cure.”
Sure, there seems to be an obvious link between the decrease of dopamine and symptoms of the condition developing. But researchers are “looking for where Parkinson’s really starts,” as Tan explained, and what exactly causes dopamine to deteriorate in the first place. “We want to find the first changes, because that may lead to more information about what is affected at the start of the disease,” the neurologist concluded.
