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PD 101

Learn about PD, medications and symptoms

You probably have lots of questions once you receive the news you have Parkinson’s disease. A 20-minute doctor visit isn’t sufficient time to get educated about what the future has in store for you. The good news is that with the proper medication, a skilled and knowledgeable treatment team and routine exercise, your life with PD is manageable.

First, a few facts:

Parkinson’s is a progressive neurological condition. People with Parkinson's don't have enough of a chemical called dopamine because some nerve cells in their brain have died. Without dopamine people can find that their movements become slower, so it takes longer to do things.
The loss of nerve cells in the brain causes the symptoms of Parkinson’s to appear.

There's currently no cure for Parkinson's and we don't yet know why people get the condition.

What medications are commonly prescribed?

• Sinemet
• Sinemet CR
• Parcopa
• Mirapex
• Requip
• Permax
• Neurpro
• Requip XL
• Apokyn
• Artane
• Cogentin
• Stalevo
• Comtan
• Tasmar
• Amantadine (Symmetrel)
• Eldepryl (Selegiline)
• Zelapar (Selegiline)
• Azilect  (Rasagiline

* Before taking any medication, consult with your doctor.

Symptoms (motor and non-motor)

The main symptoms of Parkinson's are tremor, rigidity and slowness of movement. As well as affecting movement, people with Parkinson's can find that other issues, such as fatigue, pain, depression and constipation, can have an impact on their day-to-day lives.

Primary symptoms are:

• Tremor
• Slowness of Movement
• Rigidity

Secondary symptoms include:

• Problems with speech and voice
• Incontinence
• Loss of sense of smell
• Difficulty swallowing
• Freezing

Some non-motor symptoms of PD include:

• Memory problems
• Dementia
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Sleep problems
• Sexual problems (hyper sexuality or low sex drive)

The symptoms someone has and how quickly the condition develops will differ from one person to the next.

Other Parkinson-related diseases

Multiple System Atrophy

MSA is a rare, neurodegenerative movement disorder. The main symptoms include ataxia (inability to coordinate voluntary muscle movement or lack of coordination) and problems with the autonomic nervous system. This is a degenerative brain condition for which, at present, there is no known cause. It causes slowness of movement, rigidity, poor coordination and balance. The symptoms can be helped in the very short term with dopamine agonists and levadopa but in the longer term there is no effective treatment.

Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP)

PSP is a progressive neurologic disorder characterized by long term changes of certain areas of the brain, including particular areas of the basal ganglia and the brainstem. Symptom onset most often occurs in the sixth decade of life. Symptoms may include balance difficulties, sudden falls, stiffness (rigidity), slowness of movement (bradykinesia), an impaired ability to perform certain voluntary eye movements and visual disturbances. Affected individuals may also develop slurred speech, swallowing difficulties, personality changes, dystonia, sudden involuntary "shock-like" muscle contractions (myoclonus) or other abnormalities. PSP usually occurs randomly for unknown reasons (sporadically); however, there are some reports of families with multiple affected members, suggesting a possible hereditary component to the disease.

This degenerative disease causes poor balance leading to frequent falls. Eventually there will be problems with eye movement leaving a person unable to look down or up. The disease progresses far quicker than Parkinson’s and there are no specific medical treatments.

Lewy-Body DLB

This degenerative brain disorder produces the symptoms of Parkinsonism. With this comes early dementia, hallucinations, a low attention span and poor problem solving skills. Levodopa can make the hallucinations worse. LBD is an umbrella term for two related diagnoses. LBD refers to both Parkinson’s disease dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies. The earliest symptoms of these two diseases differ, but reflect the same underlying biological changes in the brain. Over time, people with both diagnoses will develop very similar cognitive, physical, sleep, and behavioral symptoms.
While it may take more than a year or two for enough symptoms to develop for a doctor to diagnose LBD, it is critical to pursue a formal diagnosis. Early diagnosis allows for important early treatment that may extend quality of life and independence.
LBD is a multisystem disease and typically requires a comprehensive treatment approach. This approach involves a team of physicians from different specialties who collaborate to provide optimum treatment of each symptom without worsening other LBD symptoms. Many people with LBD enjoy significant improvement of their symptoms with a comprehensive approach to treatment, and some can have remarkably little change from year to year.
Some people with LBD are extremely sensitive or may react negatively to certain medications used to treat Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s in addition

Read FAQs about LBD

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