Parkinson's Disease Analysis

Parkinson’s Disease is a chronic and progressive movement disorder, meaning that the symptoms will gradually become worse over time. This disease affects about 6.3 million people worldwide, typically developing over the age of 65. The cause of this disease is generally unknown, but however it is believed to involve genetic and environmental factors. Parkinson’s impacts millions of people across the world, in the United States as many as one million Americans are affected. Approximately 60,000 Americans are diagnosed each year, however that number does not reflect the thousands of cases that go undetected. The cause for this disease in people is idiopathic, yet a small proportion of cases can be attributed to genetic factors. In 2013 Parkinson’s …show more content…
This age group had a prevalence of 1,601 individuals from North America, Europe, and Australia compared with 646 individuals from Asia. A significant difference was found for 50 to 59yr olds only for a difference in sex, a prevalence of 41 in females and 134 in males. While Parkinson’s prevalence increases steadily with age, some differences in prevalence’s can be detected weather by geographic location or sex. There are many symptoms of Parkinson’s; while it may vary from person to person they may all share the same symptom, such as tremors, bradykinesia, rigid muscles, speech changes, and many others. Parkinson’s disease affects the body’s motor system greatly. There are four motor symptoms that are considered cardinal in Parkinson’s. The symptoms being tremor, rigidity, slowness of movement, and postural instability. Tremor is the most notable one; a shaking that usually begins in a limb, or in the hand or fingers. A pill-rolling tremor occurs when there is constant back and forth rubbing of the thumb and …show more content…
One drug for example is Levodopa; this has been the most widely used treatment for over 30 years. The drug is taken orally and is converted into dopamine in the dopaminergic neurons. Because motor symptoms are reduced by a lack of dopamine, the administration of Levodopa temporarily diminishes the motor symptoms. The stage of the disease determines which group of medication is the most useful. There are two stages that are usually distinguished; an initial stage in where the individual with Parkinson’s has already developed some disability. The other stage being in which the individual develops motor complications related to levodopa usage. Levodopa is the most commonly used treatment and still is used widely for its