General Illness Information
Medical Term: Parkinson’s disease
Common Name: None Specified
Description: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic, progressive movement disorder which affects 1% of the population over the age of 65 years
General Illness Information
Medical Term: Parkinson’s disease
Common Name: None Specified
Description: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic, progressive movement disorder which affects 1% of the population over the age of 65 years. This is a neurological disorder which becomes apparent as cells in a certain part of the brain (the basal ganglia), are lost. The disease is characterized by a tremor which is present at rest, increased muscle tone (stiffness) and/or a slowness in initiating movements.
The disease usually presents in people over the age of 50 years. In younger people without a family history of PD, symptoms like tremor are likely to be due to some other cause.
Causes: Unknown. There is accelerated loss of dopaminergic neurons in the part of the brain called substantia nigra— in normal people loss of neurons occurs at 0.5% as opposed to 1% in patients with Parkinsonism.
By definition, PD is a disease without a known cause. PD is thought to result partly from a genetic predisposition to the disease and partly from exposure to toxic substances in the environment (which are as yet unknown). If the constellation of symptoms is identical to PD, but a known environmental cause exists (e.g. carbon monoxide poisoning, a specific drug or medication, manganese exposure), then the disease is called parkinsonism, but not Parkinson’s disease.
Prevention: At present, there is no medication or practice which is used to prevent PD. Therefore, no medication is given to otherwise healthy people to prevent the disease. However, studies are being done on neuroprotective treatments which, if used early in the course of the disease, may slow the progression of the disease.
The most promising of these neuroprotective treatments are:
- Selegiline (Eldepryl) – Selegiline is an antioxidant therapy which may prevent damage to the affected part of the brain. At present, its protective value is still a matter of debate, so discuss it with your physician if you are interested in this treatment.
- D3-Agonists (e.g. ropinirole; p