Journal of Aging Science

Brief Comment on Parkinsonism and its Symptoms

Received: 23-Dec-2021 Published: 14-Jan-2022

Description

Any person who has the signs and symptoms characteristics of Parkinsonism tremor, rigidity, slowness of movement or loss of spontaneous movement and postural impairment is said to have Parkinsonism but not every person with Parkinsonism has parkinsons disease. Parkinsonism has many possible causes and parkinsons disease is only one of the possibilities. It may be the result of a stroke or a side effect of certain medications. Many other types of neurodegenerative disorders result in Parkinsonism. Although parkinsons disease is the most common of these. In many cases the Parkinsonism found in these other disorders is due to damage to the substantia nigra and more often than not the damage extends to other brain areas as well. People with Parkinsonism may have symptoms of impaired movement, thinking, behavior and other body functions that people with True parkinsons are less likely to develop. Even considering such differences, parkinsons disease can be very difficult to distinguish from other forms of parkinsonism. Patients and their families need to understand Parkinsonism because some 20 to 25 percent of people diagnosed with Parkinsonism will eventually be discovered to have some other forms of Parkinsonism. Parkinsonism may look like parkinsons disease, but over time it does not act like it. Differences that were subtle at the beginning of a disorder often become more pronounced as it progresses. For people with Parkinsonism, the symptoms may become more disabling more quickly or may progress more slowly than in parkinsons disease. Parkinsonism symptoms may or may not respond to the medications used to treat parkinsons disease. A number of other disorders that include involuntary tremor are not, strictly speaking a type of Parkinsonism but can be mistaken for parkinsons disease. If one has been diagnosed with parkinsons but observe that your symptoms are not characteristic of parkinsons disease as described which results in in another form of parkinsonism or a different disease altogether. We generally expect that each year the signs and symptoms of the disease will become more pronounced, not even a physician, can accurately predict how or how quickly the disease will progress in a specific individual. There is no reliable way to evaluate the degree of cell loss occurred or how fast it is progressing. We can say that Parkinson’s is not the kind of disease in which it is a twelve month period, someone who is able to walk and function independently suddenly finds herself or himself incapacitated and wheel chair bound. In the average patient, the disorder is very slowly and gradually progressive over years, with relatively mild and subtle changes occurring in the first months or years of the illness.

Although we cannot predict how the disease will progress in a specific individual we do try to answer the questions patients naturally have about the course of their disease. Why? Because people need to know how long they can expect to remain employed or fully self-sufficient. They need to know how their disease will progress and how it shows impact on their daily life.