How far have we come in 25 years?

September 29, 2009 3:12 AM

Seeking accurate data points for improving survival rates for neurological disorders, but have no idea where to start.

I'm looking for information on how patient survival rates have improved in the last 25 years, specifically for diseases like Parkinsons and Alzheimers, and what advances in treatment, surgery, drugs, etc., are behind the figures.

As a total medical ignoramus, I would also be interested in learning about the key developments in neuro surgery over the last quarter century. I'm in the UK, but global perspectives are always helpful.

Apologies in advance for the rather simplistic approach and thank you.

posted by jonathanbell to health & fitness (3 comments total)

Your best bet is probably to start with a medical/science journal database like PubMed. For instance I searched for "survival rates parkinsons" and this is one of the articles that came up.

(Quote from abstract:
...Survival in Parkinson's disease has increased since the widespread use of levodopa....)
posted by purlgurly at 6:00 AM on September 29

Also, Wikipedia is not the worst place to start - for example, to get ideas for possible database search terms.
posted by purlgurly at 6:02 AM on September 29

I think http://scholar.google.com/ will search the aforementioned-and-totally-awesome PubMed as well as a lot of other sources.
posted by paanta at 7:53 AM on September 29