Dr. Gilbert Hosts: Pre-motor Parkinson’s Disease
In this session of Dr. Gilbert Hosts, Dr. Gilbert had an eye-opening conversation with special guests Dr. Michael Schwarzschild, along with Stacey Mihaly and Charles Walker, two people living with Parkinson’s disease. They discussed how Parkinson’s may begin long before the first tremor appears, and answered audience questions live.
Watch the broadcast now on APDA’s YouTube Channel and be sure to subscribe to the APDA YouTube channel for more informative and important resources for Parkinson’s disease.
ABOUT OUR SPEAKER:
DR. MICHAEL SCHWARZSCHILD
Dr. Schwarzschild completed undergraduate training in biochemistry at Princeton University. He went on to medical and graduate neuroscience training at Harvard Medical School writing his PhD thesis on the neurochemistry of tyrosine hydroxylase, the enzyme controlling dopamine biosynthesis. His neurology residency and movement disorders fellowship training were at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Since 1996, Dr. Schwarzschild has directed the Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory at MGH. His laboratory discovered the neuroprotective properties of adenosine A2A receptor blockers (including caffeine) in mouse models of Parkinson’s, which fostered development of a new therapy for Parkinson’s patients, istradefylline.
Dr. Schwarzschild received the prestigious George C. Cotzias Fellowship from the American Parkinson Disease Association and a Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholar Award. He has led disease progression studies for the Parkinson Study Group, a consortium of North American clinical trial sites and investigators dedicated to finding improved treatments for PD. He is the director of a series of conferences entitled Planning for the Prevention of Parkinson’s disease, the next of which will take place May 22-24, 2026, in Phoenix, just before the World Parkinson Congress. In addition, he is a staff neurologist at MGH, working with Parkinson’s patients and their families in his weekly movement disorders clinic.