Sex Differences in Parkinson’s Disease: From Bench to Bedside

Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer’s disease and gender differences have been described on several aspects of PD.

In the present commentary, we aimed to collect and discuss the currently available evidence on gender differences in PD regarding biomarkers, genetic factors, motor and non-motor symptoms, therapeutic management (including pharmacological and surgical treatment) as well as preclinical studies.

Methods: A systematic literature review was performed by searching the Pubmed and Scopus databases with the search strings “biomarkers”, “deep brain stimulation”, “female”, “gender”, “genetic”, “levodopa”, “men”, “male”, “motor symptoms”, “non-motor symptoms”, “Parkinson disease”, “sex”, “surgery”, and “women”.

Results: The present review confirms the existence of differences between men and women in Parkinson Disease, pointing out new information regarding evidence from animal models, genetic factors, biomarkers, clinical features and pharmacological and surgical treatment.

Conclusions: The overall goal is to acquire new informations about sex and gender differences in Parkinson Disease, in order to develop tailored intervetions.