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ROBERT E. LITMAN, M.D.

AMA Arch Intern Med. 1952;89(4):562-567.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

THAT MANY patients with Parkinson's syndrome (paralysis agitans) tolerate extremes of temperature poorly has been recorded previously in the medical literature, but with insufficient emphasis. In 1893 Dana¹ commented upon the unusual sensitivity to heat manifested in Parkinsonism, an observation which was confirmed more recently by Neal.² Cases of fatal heatstroke were mentioned briefly in articles by Cooper,³ Benda and Cobb,⁴ and Price and Merritt.⁵ The danger of hyperpyrexia occurring as a complication of the treatment of Parkinsonism with atropine-like drugs was stressed by Hall.⁶

Although toxicity due to therapy with belladonna alkaloids undoubtedly increases the incidence of hyperthermia in Parkinsonism, an important predisposing factor frequently is a disturbance of autonomic regulation caused by the underlying pathologic process. Pathologic alterations affecting the hypothalamus⁷ and the reticular substance of the brain stem⁸ are common in this disease. In my experience,⁹ moderate to severe degrees of clinical autonomie dysfunction almost invariably accompany . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
LOS ANGELES

From the Division of Neurology of the University of Minnesota Medical School and the Veterans Administration Hospital, Minneapolis.

Footnotes
Reviewed in the Veterans Administration and published with the approval of the Chief Medical Director. The statements and conclusions published by the author are the result of his own study and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or policy of the Veterans Administration.

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