NEUROLOGICAL DISEASE IN A DEFINED POPULATION - THE RESULTS OF A PILOT-STUDY IN 2 GENERAL PRACTICES

A pilot study was set up to ascertain incident neurological disorders occurring in 25,000 people attending two general-practice surgeries fo r a period of 1 year. To achieve completeness of ascertainment and dia gnostic validity poses considerable logistical and theoretical difficu lties, and these are discussed. The commonest disorders (incidence in parentheses) were headaches (210/100,000), back syndromes (319/100,000 ), acute cerebrovascular disease (128/100,000), and migraine (64/100,0 00), with non-specific symptoms the most common problem overall (514/1 00,000). The incidence of Parkinson's disease was 26/100,000 and that of epilepsy 23/100,000. The pilot study will form the basis for a more comprehensive linkage scheme between the National Hospital for Neurol ogy and Neurosurgery in London and surrounding general practices with a total base population of 100,000.