This focused issue on “Palliative Care for Parkinson’s Disease and Related Disorders” is edited by Prof. Benzi Kluger from Departments of Neurology and Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA.
This focused issue sheds further light on the exciting work and active research community tackling a broad array of issues tied to palliative care and PDRD. In all of these articles the authors take us past the general question of whether persons living with PDRD would benefit from palliative care to the specific questions of how. While there is significant evidence that the PDRD population has high palliative care needs, the question of which individuals merit more intensive clinical services or inclusion in clinical trials has not been fully addressed. To begin this issue, Richfield and Johnson (11) tackle this important question by reviewing several approaches and tools that have been used for palliative care needs assessment. As they note, this is a complex area and the choice of tool (or tools) will depend on the population to be supported, the services to be offered and the goals of the clinician or researcher.