Parkinson's Disease Research Paper

The National Parkinson's Foundation estimates that each PD patient pays $2500 a year on medicines alone. When accounting for Social Security and nursing home payments, Parkinson's Disease costs over $5.6 billion annually to the nation (PD Web, 1998). Despite the high occurrence of Parkinson's, it is still not always recognized as a significant medical problem. The symptoms are often ignored in the elderly because they are thought to be part of the natural process of aging (PD Web, 1998). Symptoms include tremors in hands, arms, legs, jaw, and face; slowness of movement, or bradykinesia, and difficulties in balance and coordination. As the chronic disease progresses, PD patients may have difficulty with simple tasks, such as walking and talking (PD Web, 1998). Much of the oversight of PD in medical research, and of other neurodegnerative diseases associated with elderly populations, like Alzheimers, could be a reflection of a dismissive attitude towards the aging process in the medical community and American culture.

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.

What exactly is Parkinson’s? Known commonly as a movement disorder. It affects movement, muscle control, and balance. “It is the second most common progressive neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer’s disease, and the second most prevalent and disabling condition in the expanding elderly population” (Mikkelsen,Stinson, 2011, pg xix). For those that aren’t aware what neurodegenerative means it’s simply the loss of nerve cells. Nerve cells which are also known as neurons are located in the nervous system. Neurons are broken down into three different types. They are sensory (receptor), motor (effector), and interneurons (connector). Each one of these neurons plays a different role in the nervous system. The purpose of neurons is to receive incoming information and in return send signals to other neurons, muscles or glands. Neurons are made up of three parts. First the cell body which controls the neuron

Parkinson disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized mainly by physical and psychological disabilities. This disorder was named after James Parkinson, an English physician who first described it as shaking palsy in 1817 (Goetz, Factr, and Weiner, 2002). Jean- Martin Charcot, who was a French neurologist, then progressed and further refined the description of the disease and identified other clinical features of PD (Goetz, Factr, and Weiner, 2002). PD involves the loss of cells that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine in a part of the brain stem called the substansia nigra, which results in several signs and symptoms (Byrd, Marks, and Starr, 2000). It is manifested clinically by tremor,

Parkinson’s Disease is known as one of the most common progressive and chronic neurodegenerative disorders. It belongs to a group of conditions known as movement disorders. Parkinson disease is a component of hypokinetic disorder because it causes a decreased in bodily movement. It affects people who are usually over the age of 50. It can impair an individual motor as well as non-motor function. Some of the primary symptoms of Parkinson’s disease are characterized by tremors or trembling in hands, legs and arms. In early symptoms the tremor can be unilateral, appearing in one side of body but progression in the disease can cause it to spread to both sides; rigidity or a resistant to movement affects most people with Parkinson’s disease,

Parkinson Disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease symptomized by tremor, muscular rigidity, and slow imprecise movements. Typically, the disease affects middle-aged and elderly individuals. PD is associated with degeneration of the basal ganglia of the brain causing a deficiency of the neurotransmission of dopamine.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a type of progressive brain disorder in the human body. Brain activity becomes disrupted when nerve cells that produce dopamine start to break down. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is responsible for movement. When it’s at extremely low levels, one would experience symptoms such as slower movement, shakiness, problems with posture, and stiff muscles. Unfortunately, Parkinson’s is incurable, but there are different types of treatments to help slow down the progression of the disease.

In 1817, James Parkinson, a British physician, published his essay reporting this disease citing six cases of paralysis agitans. An Essay on the Shaking Palsy described the characteristic resting tremor, abnormal posture and gait, paralysis and diminished muscle strength, and the way that the disease progresses over so it was labeled Parkinson’s disease (PD) in his honor. Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative brain disorder that progresses slowly in most people. Most people's symptoms take years to develop, and they live for years with the disease. In short, a person's brain slowly stops producing a neurotransmitter called dopamine. With less and less dopamine, a person has less and less ability to regulate their movements, body and

Parkinson’s Disease is a movement disorder that gets worse and worse over time. Parkinson’s is mainly found in older people. It is where significant neurons of the brain begin to malfunction and die. Parkinson’s typically affects the neurons in the substantia nigra part of the brain. Some of these important neurons produce a chemical called dopamine that sends signals to the primary motor cortex portion of the brain to control movement. The amount of this chemical decreases as PD advances, causing the individual to lose control over their movement and coordination.

Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder and the most common movement disorder. Characteristics of Parkinson’s disease are progressive loss of muscle control, which leads to trembling of the limbs and head while at rest, stiffness, slowness, and impaired balance. As symptoms worsen, it may become difficult to walk, talk, and complete simple

Parkinson's is caused by the death of brain cells that produce dopamine, one of the chemicals that carry messages between neurons. Low dopamine impairs the basal ganglia, which are brain regions that control movement and coordination. The early signs of this disease is often trembling or shanking of a limb usually when the body is at rest, these first tremors usually begin on one side of the body typically a hand. These tremors can effect arms, legs, feet, and a patients face. Parkinson's disease belongs to a group of conditions called motor system disorders, which are the result of the loss of dopamine-producing brain cells. The four primary symptoms of Parkinson's are tremor, or trembling in hands, arms, legs, jaw, and face; rigidity, or

The first common associated effect is thinking difficulties most commonly known as dementia, this symptom occurs more frequently in the later stages and have no response to any form of treatment. The next common associated effect is depression and emotional changes, this can be caused because the affect that this disease has on the human body and can be treated with normal depression medications and treatment. The next common associated effect is swallowing problems, as Parkinson’s disease continues in its stages the patient will start to have difficulties with their ability to swallow and may cause the patient to drool. Another common associated effect is sleep disorders, this causes patients to wake up multiple times through the night and waking up before they are supposed to but also falling asleep during daytime hours. A common associated effect may also be bladder problems, this can cause the inability to control the release of urine but also complications with urination. Another common associated effect is constipation, Parkinson’s disease can cause a slowing of the digestive tract and this will lead to the patient have problems with constipation. The next common associated effect is blood pressure changes, most patients with Parkinson’s disease will have difficulties with orthostatic hypotension. The next common associated effect is smell dysfunction, this causes difficulties with the patient’s sense of smell and determining certain odors. Another common associated effect is fatigue, most patients with Parkinson’s disease have extreme fatigue and have yet to determine the cause of this effect. Another common associated effect is pain, again most patients with Parkinson’s disease are plagued with pain that can be systemic or localized. The final common associated effect is sexual dysfunction, this effect does not occur in most patients however in the patients that it does occur in their sexual

Parkinson’s disease (PD), is degenerative disease of the brain affects parts of the brain that are associated with normal movement and balance. The mechanism of PD start by the loss of brain cells that produce dopamine in substantia nigra. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter or chemical messenger that carries signals between the neurons in the brain. The etiology of PD is idiopathic, and it is supposed to be due to many factors such as age, genetics, and environmental factors such as pesticides(5).

Parkinson’s disease is a common form of Parkinsonism, affecting as many as one out of every hundred people aged 65 years and over. The disease prevalence increases with age, with

The main pathological feature of idiopathic Parkinson’s disease is the progressive degeneration of selected but heterogeneous populations of neurons (Fig. 1) , including the dopaminergic cells of the pars compacta of the substantia nigra that primarly project to the striatum (caudate nucleus and putamen) and also to other basal ganglia nuclei (Lang and Lozano, 1998). Subsequently, dopamine loss in these sites prevents brain cells from performing their normal inhibitory effect within the basal ganglia, leading to most of the movement abnormalities in PD, as they improve with dopamine replacement; whereas non-motor features show a poor or no response to dopamine replacement (Kandel, 2013).