Healthcare: Parkinson's Disease
A serious disease affecting the central nervous system, Parkinson's disease is characterized by impaired speech and motor skills. Even when the limbs are at rest they tremble incessantly, and they are stiff and rigid when they are moved passively (when the patient cannot move voluntarily, and has to use another limb, or has to be helped to move it). The patient acquires a shuffling gait, is unable to lift his/her feet, and stumbles over the smallest obstacle. Speech becomes indistinct, and there is drooling and difficulty in swallowing. The patient's face appears expressionless with unblinking eyes, and he/she experiences excessive fatigue.
Parkinson's disease - Primary and secondary stages: There are two stages of Parkinson's disease; primary and secondary. In the primary stage, the discernable symptoms are tremor, muscle rigidity, bradykinesia or slowing down of physical movement, which may aggravate to 'akinesia', which is total loss of physical movement. When required to look backwards, the person affected with the disease tends to turn en bloc, instead of just turning the head or twisting the body. The person effects the turn by taking several small steps, with the neck and trunk remaining rigid.
The secondary symptoms are language problems and a high degree of cognitive dysfunction. The reaction time to anything becomes progressively slow, and they start suffering from executive dysfunction. Although experts have still not understood what this constitutes, for the person affected with Parkinson's disease, it means displaying disorganized actions in everyday tasks and impairment in planning, decision making and abstract thinking processes. He or she would not be able inhibit inappropriate actions, and the disease can later develop into dementia. Other secondary stage symptoms are bouts of excessive drowsiness and insomnia, dizziness, fainting, pain, loss of the sense of smell, and urinary incontinence.
Parkinson's disease - Possible causes:
Medical science attributes the cause to damage of nerve cells in the middle part of the brain, called the substantia nigra. These cells produce dopamine, which is responsible for the coordination of body movements. When dopamine producing cells die, other centers in the brain that control body movement are affected. In Parkinson's disease, dopamine production is severely diminished, leading to excessive muscle contraction and the other disorders discussed above. Why are these cells damaged? There is no specific answer to this question. Most of the people affected are said to have idiopathic Parkinson's disease, which means no specific cause is found. Rarely though, causes such as head trauma, toxins, drug induced Parkinson's disease and disease due to genetic causes can sometimes be suspected to have caused the onset.
Parkinson's disease - Treatment: As for medication, L-dopa is the drug that is used extensively. Further research has proven that a drug called Entacapone has given treatment benefits similar to Caridopa, without causing liver damage. Some other drugs being used are Bromocriptine, Pergolide, Ropinirole, Pramipexole, Cabergoline, Lisuride and Apomorphine. Surgical treatment mostly consists of deep brain stimulation, although lately a better method known as pallidotomy is being preferred. Apart from medication and surgery, speech therapy and physical exercise form part of the treatment plan. Picture and motor sequencing is being used to assess the level of cognitive deficiencies in Parkinson's disease.