A Comparative Study of Parkinson’s Disease with Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly, accounting for 65–70% of all cases (Jellinger, Janetzky, Attems, & Kienzl, 2008). The other dementias are of the Parkinson 's group, the fronto-temporal group and the vascular group. The total worldwide yearly costs for the treatment and care of patients suffering from dementia are estimated to be around 250 billion US dollars. The lifetime risk for AD between the ages of 65 and 100 is 33% for men and 45% for women with an annual increase of 1–2% in the seventh decade to almost 60% in the 10th decade with doubling every 5 years (Jellinger et al., 2008). AD is incurable, and thus represents a major public health problem. AD represents a challenge to humanity due to its relatively recent discovery, progressive nature of the illness, and complex diagnosis.

By the time someone shows signs and symptoms of Parkinson 's, Dopamine production in the brain has been reduced by 60 to 80% and is fairly advanced. This results in the most recognizable sign of Parkinson 's disease, the resting tremor of the hand or hands. During deliberate movement, the resting tremor goes away, at first. At rest, the tremor will become exacerbated,

C) Similarities between the symptoms of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s as well as the treatments or interventions.

Due to the inability of the brain to replace nerve cells, some brain function is lost. The key question in Alzheimer’s disease is, what causes the neuron degeneration (Johnson, 1989)? The focus for finding the cause is on abnormal structures found in the brain of people with Alzheimer’s. Unfortunately, the abnormal structures the brain undergoes still has researchers uncertain as to how they are involved in Alzheimer’s and exactly how the disease occurs.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive and fatal form of dementia, frequently seen in the elderly altering their cognition, thought process and behavior. AD is reported in about half of patients that have a dementia diagnosis; one study states that about 10.3% of the population over 65 years is affected by dementia with an increase to almost 50% over the age of 8 (Beattie, 2002). Alzheimer’s disease is not a normal part of the aging process in humans, but rather found in a group of diseases that affect the brain leading to a decline in mental and physical control. AD when diagnosed has a very slow and gradual course, initially affecting the individual’s short term memory (Beattie, 2002). Alzheimer’s disease is the 6th leading cause of death, affecting more than five million people in the United States and is also one of the most common forms of dementia. Dementia can be defined as a disorder of progressive cognitive impairment severe enough to affect daily functions of an individual’s life (Fillit, et al., 2002).

A brain deteriorates, slowly being engulfed by a mysterious disease. The neurons being cut off and destroyed by two abnormal structures. First memory is affected gradually getting worse. Then one is unable to think properly, reason, and lacks of self control. Gaps are formed in the brain 's ventricles, due to the amount of dead tissue. In the end, it will lead to death. All of this may sound like something from a science fiction movie but infact its very real. These are all known possible symptoms of a common disease that affects about millions of Americans. It is known as Alzheimer 's disease (AD), and I plan on explaining it a bit more in this paper. First I will explain the disease and list some facts about it,then I will talk about some commonly asked questions about it.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia known today. The term “dementia” refers to a variety of conditions that arise from the loss of nerve cell function and/or nerve cell death in the brain, including Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, Parkinson’s disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and other types of mixed dementia. Although all types of dementia arise from neuronal damage and/or death, each form of dementia is associated with distinct brain abnormalities and symptom patterns. Once a patient has been diagnosed with dementia, a physician must conduct further tests in order to determine the exact form of dementia that is present. Recent research indicates that many individuals,

Age-related declines are not constant across brain regions. Moreover, patterns of brain aging differs among individuals. Post mortem (PM) studies cannot help in assessment of brain tissue and its components. Moreover, PM cannot provide information on dynamic process of adult brain development, and its connection with brain structure and function. MRI helps in in-vivo measurements of the brain. It was realized that there is cortical thinning as age progresses. . Some studies of cortical thickness failed to replicate stability of the primary sensory regions (e.g., calcarine cortex) (Fjell et al., 2009; Salat et al., 2004) while others found that cortical thinning in frontal and parietal lobes exceed that of the temporal and occipital regions (Thambisetty et al., 2010). It is suggested that myelin is related to shrinkage in cerebral cortex or responsible for loss of cortical volume. MRI has helped evaluate leukoaraiosis which is a change in white matter integrity that is displayed on a T2-weighted MR image as a high signal intensity area. This area is defined as white matter hyperintensities (WMH) which depicts pathological processes such as ischemic lesions, gliosis, axonal degeneration, loss of myelin, microinfarcts, and expansion of perivascular spaces (de Leeuw et al., 2001; Pantoni, 1998). WHM is observed around the borders of the ventricles and deep in the subcortical WM regions. WHM is not present in health adults until the age of 50-55 (Hopkins et al., 2006). Further,

Alzheimer’s disease, other wise known as AD, is an age-related, non-reversible brain disorder that develops over a period of years . “Initially, people experience memory loss and confusion, which may be mistaken for the kinds of memory changes that are sometimes associated with normal aging.” However, what differentiates Alzheimer’s from normal aging is that cognitive function is impaired at such a high intensity over such a small time period that it induces issues such as: personality changes, decline in cerebral function, impairments when reasoning and making decisions, distortion and interference with speech, inability

There are categories of brain dementia, which are cortical and subcortical. Subcortical dementia is marked by motor disruption. An example of subcortical dementia would be parkinson’s disease. On the other hand, Alzheimer’s is an example of cortical dementia, which as previously established is marked by memory loss. Although Alzheimer’s is classified as cortical dementia, it eventually destroys cells in all four lobes of the brain thus resulting in motor disruption as well. The ventricles, the fluid filled spaces in the brain begin to enlarge as the disease develops. The symptoms of memory loss and impaired cognitive functioning in Alzheimer’s disease can be attributed to damage in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex. The earliest detection

As a medical practitioner, I was always fascinated by the complexities of the human nervous system. A few years later, during my neurology residency training, I developed special interests in the field of neurodegenerative disorders and dementias. These are largely non-curable disorders

A high prevalence of both diseases displays the importance of using physical therapy interventions to aid in treatment. Both Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease do not have a cure, progress slowly and degrade a patient’s quality of life. Physical therapy intervention is a key component in the treatment process of both diseases.

Parkinson’s Disease is a long-term progressive neurodegenerative disease consisting of motor system impairment, neuropsychiatric, and nonmotor features. The disease is characterized by the following key clinical features: bradykinesia, resting tremor, postural instability, and rigidity. These symptoms are due to the diminishing of dopamine in the nigrostriatal pathway and substantia nigra, which causes inhibition of the thalamus decreasing excitatory input to the motor cortex.1 Along with the key manifestations an individual with Parkinson’s Disease will experience problems associated with the disease or the antiparkinson medications. These co-occurring problems are hallucinations, dementia, daytime sleepiness, fatigue, depression, and pyschosis.2 Psychosis is a common problem in Parkinson’s Disease, and is characterized by paranoid delusions and hallucinations that are visual in nature.2 Risk factors for psychosis consists of advancing age, dementia, sleep disorders, and high doses of antiparkinson drugs.1

Nowadays, one of the most prevalent diseases is considered to be the neurodegenerative disorders because of increased life expectancy and population’s growth. With the term neurodegeneration is characterized the process of the nervous system, in which there is a progressive loss of structure and functions of neuronal cells. Neurodegenerative disorders are, also, defined as hereditary, incurable and debilitating conditions. The most common neurodegenerative diseases are Alzheimer and Parkinson. Both of these diseases are late-onset and many individuals believe that there is a relationship between them. The present essay emphasizes on the description of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease as well as the comparison and the contrast of the biological

Parkinson’s Disease is a very common disorder these days. Over 10 million people live daily with Parkinson worldwide. Parkinson’s Disease was named after an English surgeon James Parkinson who wrote a detailed description essay called Shaking Palsy in 1817. The average age for Parkinson’s Disease is between 45 to 70 years old but you can also have juvenile or young onset as well. Most common symptoms of Parkinson are tremors, bradykinesia or akinesia, or rigidity or stiffness, and balance disorder. Parkinson’s Disease doesn’t have a cure and the cause is unknown it could be a number of things genetics, environmental triggers, age, or gender. Parkinson’s Disease happens because the dopaminergic neuron dies and