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Parkinson's Disease - Parkinson's Disease Symptom, Cause, Treatment
Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by an insidious onset with slowing of emotional and voluntary movement, muscular rigidity, postural abnormality and tremor. Parkinson's disease was first formally described in "An Essay on the Shaking Palsy," published in 1817 by a London physician named James Parkinson, but it has probably existed for many thousands of years. As they become more pronounced, patients may have difficulty walking, talking, or completing other simple tasks. But although Parkinson's disease may eventually be disabling, the disease often progresses gradually, and most people have many years of productive living after a diagnosis. PD is the most common form of parkinsonism , the name for a group of disorders with similar features and symptoms. The incidence and prevalence of PD increase with age. The average age of onset is approximately 60 years.One treatment approach is medications. Another involves an implanted device that stimulates the brain . While most forms of parkinsonism are idiopathic, there are some cases where the cause is known or suspected or where the symptoms result from another disorder.
Symptoms of Parkinson's Disease
Some are common symptoms of Parkinson's Disease :
- Bradykinesia, or the slowing down and loss of spontaneous and automatic movement, is particularly frustrating because it may make simple tasks somewhat difficult.
- Your posture may become unstable as a result of Parkinson's disease.
- This may develop in the later stages of the disease, but except in rare cases, most people who have trouble swallowing can continue to eat on their own.
- Changes in sensations of temperature, hot flashes, and excessive sweating.
- In people with a history of migraine, the onset of Parkinson's is associated with change in migraine symptoms (most often improvement).
- The voice becomes weak, and weakness of the swallowing muscles may cause drooling.
- This occurs in about a third of people with Parkinson's disease.
- Freezing of movement when the movement is stopped, inability to resume movement
Causes of Parkinson's Disease
The common causes of Parkinson's Disease :
- PD develops as cells are destroyed in certain parts of the brain stem, particularly the crescent-shaped cell mass known as the substantia nigra .
- Dopamine is one of three major neurotransmitters known as catecholamines , which help the body respond to stress and prepare it for the fight-or-flight response.
- Damage in the area of the brain that controls muscle movement causes a decrease in dopamine production.
- Defective genes that regulate the molecules alpha synuclein and parkin, which are important in the PD disease process, may be responsible for a number of early-onset cases.
- They do know some medicines can cause or worsen symptoms of Parkinson's disease.
- Although the cause of Parkinson's remains unknown, scientists have identified factors that contribute to Parkinson's in some patients.
Treatment of Parkinson's Disease
- Carbidopa is a medication that reduces the side effects of levodopa and makes it work better.
- Pramipexole and ropinirole are dopamine medications used before or together with
- This drug, used with or without carbidopa-levodopa therapy, helps prevent the breakdown of both naturally occurring dopamine and dopamine formed from levodopa.
- These drugs prolong the effect of carbidopa-levodopa therapy by blocking an enzyme that breaks down dopamine.
- Destroying certain areas of the brain (thalamotomy and pallidotomy)-to improve tremor in patients for whom medication is not effective
- Amantadine or anticholinergic medications may be used to reduce early or mild tremors.
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