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Challenges of Parkinson’s Disease Care in Southeast Asia

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NeuroPsychopharmacotherapy

Abstract

When reviewing literature on Parkinson’s disease (PD), the focus tends to be on Western studies where as this, historically, is where the majority of studies have been undertaken. However, this bias is gradually changing as the prevalence of PD is rising steeply in highly populous nations, which are mainly located in Eastern hemisphere and including some within Southeast Asia (SEA). With this rising demand for PD care in SEA, it is becoming apparent that there is a mismatch of what healthcare resources are available across the region including access to facilities, qualified personnel, approved and reimbursed therapeutic options, or even knowledge of those who treat and those who receive the treatments. This chapter looks at these challenges through the lens of a typical case of PD patient in SEA, where various challenges are faced along the case history, from diagnosis to advanced disease stage, with the intention of providing real regional perspectives, supported by data or published literature when available. In addition, further insights on the practicalities of each challenge are sought using individual authors’ clinical experience from within various countries of SEA. It is unlikely that this chapter includes all challenges that PD patients face in this region, but the authors have attempted to outline all those that are relevant in clinical situations and provide rationales or solutions for some when available. It is not the intention of the authors to fill this chapter with statistics or theoretical approaches that, though seemingly ideal, have never been implemented in real clinical scenarios. Rather, the authors want readers to be able to visualize the challenges from a real clinical vignette typical of this region and to compare and contrast these challenges with what is happening in the reader’s own environment. With the era of information technology and the “new” normal that we all are facing, we all can benefit from information gained from any part of the world and apply it appropriately in our clinical practice.

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Acknowledgments

Roongroj Bhidayasiri is supported by Senior Research Scholar Grant (RTA6280016) of the Thailand Science Research and Innovation (TSRI), International Research Network Grant of the Thailand Research Fund (IRN59W0005), Chulalongkorn Academic Advancement Fund into Its 2nd Century Project of Chulalongkorn University, and Centre of Excellence grant of Chulalongkorn University (GCE 6100930004-1), Bangkok, Thailand.

Financial Disclosure

Roongroj Bhidayasiri: receives salary from Chulalongkorn University and stipend from the Royal Society of Thailand, has received consultancy and/or honoraria/lecture fees from Abbott, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Britannia, Ipsen, Novartis, Teva-Lundbeck, Takeda, and Otsuka pharmaceuticals; he has received research funding from the Newton Fund, the UK Government, Thailand Science and Research Innovation Bureau, Thailand Research Fund, Crown Property Bureau, Chulalongkorn University, and the National Science and Technology Development Agency; he holds patents for laser-guided walking stick, portable tremor device, nocturnal monitoring, and electronic Parkinson’s disease symptom diary as well as copyright on Parkinson’s mascot, dopamine lyrics and teaching video clips for common nocturnal and gastrointestinal symptoms for Parkinson’s disease.

Other authors report no financial disclosure.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chulalongkorn Centre of Excellence for Parkinson’s Disease and Related Disorders, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University and King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Thai Red Cross Society, Bangkok, Thailand

    Roongroj Bhidayasiri & Sasivimol Virameteekul

  2. The Academy of Science, The Royal Society of Thailand, Bangkok, Thailand

    Roongroj Bhidayasiri

  3. Red Cross Hospital, Bogor, West Java, Indonesia

    Banon Sukoandari

  4. Movement Disorder Unit, Department of Neurology, University Medical Center, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

    Tai Ngoc Tran

  5. Island Hospital, Penang, Malaysia

    Thien Thien Lim

Authors
  1. Roongroj Bhidayasiri
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  2. Sasivimol Virameteekul
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  3. Banon Sukoandari
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  4. Tai Ngoc Tran
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  5. Thien Thien Lim
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Roongroj Bhidayasiri .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept Psychiatry , Psychosomatics & Psychotherapy, University of Würzburg, Medical School Clinical Neurochemistry, Würzburg, Germany

    Peter Riederer

  2. Inst für Psychologische Medizin, Haag, Bayern, Germany

    Gerd Laux

  3. Fujita Health University School Medicine, Toyoake, Aichi, Japan

    Toshiharu Nagatsu

  4. Center Translational Res Neurol Diseases, Dalian Med Uni Shanghai Inst Health Sc Center Translational Res Neurol Diseases, Dalian, China

    Weidong Le

  5. Würzburg, Bayern, Germany

    Christian Riederer

Section Editor information

  1. Clinic and Policlinic for Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Univsersity of Hospital Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

    Peter Riederer

  2. Department of Psychiatry, University of South Denmark, Odense, Denmark

    Peter Riederer

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Bhidayasiri, R., Virameteekul, S., Sukoandari, B., Tran, T.N., Lim, T.T. (2021). Challenges of Parkinson’s Disease Care in Southeast Asia. In: Riederer, P., Laux, G., Nagatsu, T., Le, W., Riederer, C. (eds) NeuroPsychopharmacotherapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56015-1_442-1

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