Parkinson's Disease
What is Parkinson's disease?
Parkinson's disease (PD or, simply, Parkinson's) is the most common form of parkinsonism, a group of motor system disorders. It is a slowly progressing, degenerative disease that is usually associated with the following symptoms, all of which result from the loss of dopamine-producing brain cells:
- tremor or trembling of the arms, jaw, legs, and face
- stiffness or rigidity of the limbs and trunk
- bradykinesia -- slowness of movement
- postural instability, or impaired balance and coordination
Facts about Parkinson's disease:
It is incorrectly believed that Parkinson's disease disappeared after the introduction of levodopa (L-dopa) in the 1960s. In fact, about 50,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson's disease each year, with more than half a million Americans affected at any one time. And more people suffer from Parkinson's disease than multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis combined.
What are causes of Parkinson's disease (PD)?
The specific cause of PD is unknown, however, medical experts believe the symptoms are related to a chemical imbalance in the brain caused by brain-cell death. Parkinson's disease is chronic (persists over a long period of time), and progressive (symptoms grow worse over time).
Although the disease may appear in younger patients, it usually affects people in late middle age, and men and women in almost equal numbers. There is also a form that strikes teenagers. It knows no social, economic, or geographic boundaries. It is not contagious, nor is it likely passed on from generation to generation.
Parkinson's Syndrome, Atypical Parkinson's, or Parkinsonism:
Parkinson's disease is also called primary parkinsonism or idiopathic Parkinson's disease. (Idiopathic is the term for a disorder for which no cause has yet been identified).
In the other forms of parkinsonism, either the cause is known or suspected, or the disorder occurs as a secondary effect of another, primary neurological disorder that may have both primary and secondary symptoms of Parkinson's disease. These disorders, described as Parkinson's Syndrome, Atypical Parkinson's, or simply parkinsonism, may include:
- drug-induced parkinsonism - prolonged use of tranquilizing drugs, such as the phenothiazines, butyrophenones, reserpine, and the commonly used drug, metaclopramide for stomach upset
- toxin-induced parkinsonism - manganese and carbon monoxide poisoning
- postencephalitic parkinsonism - a viral disease that causes "sleeping sickness"
- striatonigral degeneration - the substantia nigra of the brain is only mildly affected, while other areas of the brain show more severe damage
- parkinsonism that accompanies other neurological conditions - such as Shy-Drager syndrome (multiple system atrophy), progressive supranuclear palsy, Wilson's disease, Huntington's disease, Hallervorden-Spatz syndrome, Alzheimer's disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, olivopontocerebellar atrophy, and post-traumatic encephalopathy
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