The epidemiology of PSP

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Abstract
The age-adjusted prevalence of PSP as measured in central New Jersey is 1.5 cases per million population, about 1% of that of Parkinson’s disease. Its incidence is 3–4 new cases per million population per year, similar to that of such better-known illnesses as myasthenia gravis, the hereditary ataxias as a group and Tourette syndrome. Median actuarially adjusted survival after symptom onset is 5.9–6.9 years. PSP appears to favor no geographical, racial, ethnic or occupational group, though there is anecdotal evidence for hydrocarbon exposure as a candidate etiologic factor. No familial cases of typical PSP have been proven. The one formal case-control study failed to implicate any particular causal agent and the rural predilection of PD appears to be absent in PSP. Better diagnostic methods, more multi-center organization, additional case-control studies and new etiologic hypotheses are needed in the epidemiological investigation of PSP.