On Saturday, 21 May 2016, the NCER-PD Clinical Team travelled to Trier in Germany where the patient organisation “Jung und Parkinson” hosted their yearly “Movie Day” in a local cinema.
The aim of the event was to inform the interested public about Parkinson’s disease (PD) by presentations of leading health professionals as well as by information desks of companies and associations concerned with PD and other movement disorders.
“Especially young Parkinson’s patients face substantial challenges when the disease starts to interfere with their professional and personal goals early in life. Here programs like the Luxembourg Parkinson’s Study will help to identify relevant factors influencing quality of life and integration into the respective professional context”, said Prof Dr Rejko Krüger, neurologist and coordinator of the study. In his presentation Krüger detailed the progress of Luxembourg’s efforts in the NCER-PD research programme, in which also patients from the Greater Region can actively participate.
At the NCER-PD booth interested visitors could try out neuropsychological tests actually used in the study to assess problems in smell, vision or dexterity. Healthy individuals were given a glimpse of what it feels to be affected by PD when provided with a simulation suit encumbering and partly immobilising the wearer. As in the year before, there was a substantial interest in the research activities in Luxembourg, which motivated several people to spontaneously join the study as new participants.
The event attracted more than 100 visitors in total, some even from Luxembourg.
Further information about the patient association “Jung und Parkinson” can be found on their website.