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Parkinson's Disease Essay

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Parkinson's Disease 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, …show more content…

Consequently, saliva management can be a common problem among Parkinson's patients. These patients are not necessarily producing excessive saliva; rather the swallowing to manage the saliva becomes difficult when the swallow reflex is compromised. Correspondingly, the loss of oral and pharyngeal sensitivity also affects the cough reflex. These two factors in combination create a “perfect storm” situation of poor salivary management and failure to cough when necessary. With this, the patient becomes at-risk for silent aspiration and laryngeal penetration of saliva or food. This can compromise the respiratory system, and expose the vocal folds to trauma. The muscle weakness, tremors, and rigidity can exact a toll on vocal folds as well, causing atrophy and vocal fold bowing. In addition to the risk of aspiration, the respiratory system reflects stiffer, weaker expiratory muscles. Respiratory support for both speech and pulmonary function are lessened. Postural instability is one of the overriding symptoms that indicate a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease and compounds the risk and weakness to the respiratory system (Umemoto et al. 2010). Obvious muscle weaknesses are not the only sign of a Parkinson's patient. Parkinson’s speakers and listeners struggle to communicate as a direct result of the compromised respiratory support for speech. Listeners use pausing, syllable duration, pause duration, and boundary tones to comprehend speech

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