Parkinson's disease
Parkinsonism is a syndrome of progressive damage to the nervous system, manifested by a decrease in general motor activity, slowness of movement (bradykinesia), tremors, and increased muscle tone. A distinction is made between Parkinson's disease - primary or idiopathic parkinsonism; secondary parkinsonism (vascular, drug-induced, post-traumatic, postencephalitic, etc.) and parkinsonism syndrome in degenerative and hereditary diseases of the central nervous system. The average age of onset of PD is 55 years. At the same time, in 10% of patients, the disease debuts at a young age, before 40 years. In this case, the disease is called juvenile parkinsonism.
The disease occurs in children and adolescents, in this case, doctors talk about Hunt's juvenile parkinsonism, which is characterized by a slow course and classic symptoms of parkinsonism. The incidence of parkinsonism does not depend on gender and race, social status and place of residence. In the later stages of the disease, the quality of life of patients is significantly reduced. In cases of severe swallowing disorders, patients quickly lose weight. In cases of prolonged immobility, death of patients is due to accompanying respiratory disorders and bedsores. The origin of Parkinson's disease remains not fully understood, however, a combination of several factors is considered as the cause of the disease:
- aging;
- heredity (genetic predisposition);
- some toxins and substances.
Other causes of Parkinson's disease include:
- viral infections leading to postencephalitic parkinsonism;
- cerebral atherosclerosis;
- severe and repeated traumatic brain injuries.
Symptoms
Parkinson's disease, despite its relatively slow development, is a progressive disease, and vivid manifestations may indicate later stages, since in the initial forms a latent course is likely. In total, there are up to 8 stages of Parkinson's disease development with progressive clinical manifestations: from the absence of obvious symptoms to complete immobilization of the patient, a specially developed scale is used to assess the condition of a specific organism.
Symptoms of the disease include:
- slow limb movements;
- difficulty or disappearance of facial activity;
- increased muscle tone;
- slouching;
- pain of varying intensity;
- specific tremor (shaking), decreasing or completely disappearing with action;
- difficulty or disappearance of control over posture (frequent falls, changes in gait, etc.);
- speech changes;
- dysfunction of the bladder;
- chronic depression.
A patient suffering from even the initial form of the disease needs a professional examination and recommendations for an individual course of treatment, since otherwise serious consequences may arise. A peculiar flexion posture appears: the head and body are tilted forward, the arms are half-bent, often tightly pressed to the body, the legs are half-bent at the knee joints. The gait is characterized by small shuffling steps. Sometimes complete immobility can occur quite early. A tendency to involuntary running forward is often observed: if you push the patient forward, he runs so as not to fall, as if "catching up with his center of gravity." Speech becomes quiet, monotonous, without modulations, with a tendency to fade out at the end of a phrase. Many patients complain of difficulties getting out of bed and turning in bed during night sleep, which significantly disrupts not only the quality of night sleep, but also, as a consequence, the completeness of daytime wakefulness.