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.
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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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