This research depicts the causes, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of Parkinson’s disease in older patients. Parkinson 's disease is a chronic disorder that causes a progressive loss of nerve cell function in the part of the brain that controls muscle movement—is an incurable neurological condition with debilitating symptoms. Treatment for younger patients include dopamine agonist drugs that mimic dopamine to stimulate dopamine system in the brain. For older patients, treatment is focused is on providing adequate symptomatic benefit in the near term with as few adverse effects as possible. Also, surgery is highly considered for patients who have motor fluctuations dyskinesia that cannot be adequately managed with medications.
How The Society Perceives Parkinson’s Disease Patients
A Review of the Literature
Imagine walking on a sidewalk, witnessing a group of people mimicking a homeless man with shaky hands and face, what would be the right thing to do? Individuals with disabilities get discriminated and labeled as stupid; they become a laughing stock to ignorant people. To make matters worse, many stand-up comedians and television directors find disability (particularly Parkinson’s disease) a very effective way to make the crowd laugh. This research will familiarize readers with this disease by defining the following questions:
1. What causes Parkinson’s disease?
2. What are the symptoms?
3. How is it diagnosed?
4. What are the available treatments?
What Causes Parkinson’s Disease?
Parkinson Disease’s (PD) is defined as progressive loss of pigmented neurons or cells in the substantia nigra of the brain. These cells manufacture the molecule dopamine, a chemical responsible for regulating purposeful movemen...
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...term with as few adverse effects as possible. Also, surgery is considered for patients who have motor fluctuations dyskinesia that cannot be adequately managed with medications. Moreover, the principal surgical action is deep brain stimulation lead implantation; which has made a resurgence in the treatments of PD because long-term complications of Levodopa therapy result in significant disability over time. Another treatment option is injecting stem cells into areas of the brain that require dopamine.
In conclusion, the society must protect and stand up for disabled citizens. It is apparent that there are still numerous ignorant people who deem physically challenged individuals as stupid--they become a laughing stock. It is difficult enough for the disabled to cope with their condition, they need support to ease up their pain. Remember, it can happen to anybody!
Many people, like myself, after watching an episode of “The Michael Jay Fox Show,” started to be come curious as to what exactly this disease is. You ask yourself; What is this disease? What causes it? Can it be passed down from generation to generation? Is there a treatment? What would your life be like suffering from this? Through my research on Parkinson’s disease, I am determined to answer these questions. I hope to have a better understanding on this disease, and how it affects the lives of patients that I might see in a hospital.
People who have been diagnosed with this lifelong disease have either started to see the early signs and symptoms or have yet to recognize them. The negative impact that fatigue, loss of muscle strength and in-coordination has on the patients with Parkinson’s disease can be improved with a well-balanced exercise regimen. The three most common physical symptoms the patient will experience are tremors, rigidity, and bradykinesia. “Tremors while at rest are the most common initial symptom and are present in around 70 percent of cases at disease onset. It often presents as a pill rolli...
Goldmann, David R., and David A. Horowitz. American College of Physicians Home Medical Guide to Parkinson's Disease. New York: Dorling Kindersley Pub., 2000. Print.
With more than 200,000 US cases per year, Parkinson’s disease has become a major part
Parkinson disease (PD), also referred to as Parkinson’s disease and paralysis agitans, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that is the third most common neurologic disorder of older adults. It is a debilitating disease affecting motor ability and is characterized by four cardinal symptoms: tremor rigidity, bradykinesia or kinesis (slow movement/no movement), and postural instability. Most people have primary, or idiopathic, disease. A few patients have secondary parkinsonian symptoms from conditions such as brain tumors and certain anti-psychotic drugs.
Parkinson's is an idiopathic, multifactorial neurodegenerative disease that attacks neurotransmitters in the brain called dopamine. Dopamine is concentrated in a specific area of the brain called the substantia nigra. The neurotransmitter dopamine is a chemical that regulates muscle movement and emotion. Dopamine is responsible for relaying messages between the substantia nigra and other parts of the brain to control body movement. The death of these neurotransmitters affects the central nervous system. The most common symptoms are movement related, including shaking, rigidity, slowness of movement and difficulty with posture. Behavioral problems may arise as the disease progresses. Due to the loss of dopamine, Parkinson's patients will often experience depression and some compulsive behavior. In advanced stages of the disease dementia will sometimes occur. The implications of the disease on the anatomy and physiology of the respiratory and phonatory systems significantly control speech.
Parkinson’s disease is a chronic, progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterised by resting tremor, slowed movements, rigidity and postural instability (Casey G, 2013). It is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer’s (Martin and Mills, 2012). There is a great variability in reported incidence rates, probably due to difference in diagnostic criteria and case ascertainment, with reported rates in Australia and in Western countries ranging from 8.6 to 19.0 per 100,000 population (J Macphee and D Stewart, 2012). The two main brain structures affected by Parkinson’s are the substantia nigra pars compacta, which is located in the midbrain and other parts of the basal ganglia, w...
The fact that early signs of Parkinsonism can easily be overlooked as normal aging, further complicates diagnosis. Therefore, primary care physicians of the middle-aged and elderly population must be extremely sensitive to patients’ outward appearance and changes in movement ability. Most signs and symptoms of Parkinson disease correspond to one of three motor deficiencies: bradykinesia, akinesia, tremor, and rigidity. The first two qualities are usually present before tremor, but often attributed to aging by the patient and even the physician, and thus the disease is rarely diagnosed until tremor becomes evident much later. An average of 80% of the nigrostriatal neurons may have already degenerated by the time Parkinsonism is diagnosed, which complicates treatment (Fitzgerald, 130).
Nancy Mairs article, “Disability” (1987), explains that the world is trying to block out the fact that disability is known to be everywhere and how companies and commercial advertisers are trying to not show disabled people on their commercials so that is shows that everyone can use their product besides disabled persons. Mairs doesn 't believe this though, she believes that advertisers are scared to depict disabled people in the ordinary activities of daily life is to admit that there is something ordinary about disability itself, that it may
Historically, we have been taught that people with disabilities are different and do not belong among us, because they are incompetent, cannot contribute to society or that they are dangerous. We’re still living with the legacy of people with disabilities being segregated, made invisible, and devalued. The messages about people with disabilities need to be changed. There needs to be more integration of people with disabilities into our culture to balance out the message. Because of our history of abandonment and initialization, fear and stigma impact our choices more than they would if acceptance, community integration, and resources were a bigger part of our history.
716). Characteristic features of Parkinson's disease include “motor impairment (bradykinesia, rigidity, tremor, gait dysfunction, and postural instability), cognitive impairment (frontal lobe executive dysfunction), and mood disorders” (p. 716). Normally, motor performance depends on the interaction between automatic (unconscious) and volitional (cognitive) control of movement, however those with Parkinson's disease, experience an “early and preferential loss of dopamine in the caudal regions of the basal ganglia (dorsal regions in rodents), which leads to diminished automatic and increased cognitive control of movements that include frontal lobe circuitry” (p. 716). Consequently, those with Parkinson’s disease must sustain a larger cognitive load to execute either motor or cognitive tasks, such as working memory. In the past decade, increasing evidence has accrued for the role of exercise in the improvement of motor performance, which may help both the cognitive and automatic control of movement. Thus, exercise interventions can help those with Parkinson’s disease incorporate goal-based motor skill training, which then helps in engaging circuitry important in motor learning. Individuals with Parkinson's disease become cognitively engaged with the practice and acquiring of movements and skills that were formerly automatic and unconscious. In addition, aerobic exercise is also observed as important for improvement of blood flow and assistance of neuroplasticity in the elderly, which may also play a role in the improvement of behavioral function in those with Parkinson's disease. Petzinger et al. additionally states that exercise also uses goal-based training and aerobic activity which can improve “both cognitive and automatic
If everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedom that is set forth in the Declaration, disabled people should not be robbed of their rights. However, they are still devalued from conducting common tasks which puts them at the bottom of the priority list as an employee and even so as a friend. In search to solve this problem, according to “The Disabled” by Bender, D. on July 26, 1990, President G...
In the essay “Disability,” Nancy Mairs discusses the lack of media attention for the disabled, writing: “To depict disabled people in the ordinary activities of life is to admit that there is something ordinary about disability itself, that it may enter anyone’s life.” An ordinary person has very little exposure to the disabled, and therefore can only draw conclusions from what is seen in the media. As soon as people can picture the disabled as regular people with a debilitating condition, they can begin to respect them and see to their needs without it seeming like an afterthought or a burden. As Mairs wrote: “The fact is that ours is the only minority you can join involuntarily, without warning, at any time.” Looking at the issue from this angle, it is easy to see that many disabled people were ordinary people prior to some sort of accident. Mairs develops this po...
Disability is an topic that has produced conflict, and is viewed very differently from either side. For able-bodied people to truly understand what disabled people go through they need to see disabled people more; see their lives. If seeing disabled people more often became reality, they would be viewed as normal more, and it would make interacting easier for both sides. Disabled people have a hard life, but it does not mean it is not worth living. Nancy Mairs, Andre Dubus, and Harriet McBryde Johnson all have physical disabilities, and have written about their experiences and views. In their writings, they touch upon both similar and different points. A very present similarity between the authors is they all play to the same audience. In their messages, both Mairs and Johnson agree that able-bodied people automatically assume that disabled people have a lower quality of life or are unhappy. The strategies used by each author plays to their message, and aids them in getting across their position. Disability isn’t always easy to understand, and these authors help illustrate that.
People with disabilities often face societal barriers and disability evokes negative perceptions and discrimination in society. As a result of the stigma associated with disability, persons with disabilities are generally excluded from education, employment, and community life, which deprives them of opportunities essential to their social development, health and well-being (Stefan). It is such barriers and discrimination that actually set people apart from society, in many cases making them a burden to the community. The ideas and concepts of equality and full participation for persons with disabilities have been developed very far on paper, but not in reality (Wallace). The government can make numerous laws against discrimination, but this does not change the way that people with disabilities are judged in society.