By Lester Conner and Brian Browitt

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Parkinson's Disease
Table of Contents -Basic info -Symptoms -Causes
-Similar diseases -Treatment

• By Lester Conner and Brian Browitt

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Basic Information

• This is a disorder of the nervous system.
• Named after a British physician, James
  Parkinsons, who first described it in 1817.
• It is also know as paralysis agitans(Shaking
  palsy)
• 1.5 million people are affected with this disease
  in the U.S.
• It occurs more in men than in women.
• Caucasians also tend to get the disease more than
  other races.
• Most people get this at around age 60, with the
  probability of it raising with age.
• 10 of cases occur in people under age 40 and
  only a rare form of the disease affects teenagers.

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Symptoms

• Parkinsons disease affects muscle control, and
  causes trembling of the limbs, muscular rigidity,
  and poor balance.
• Symptoms may cause problems with thinking,
  talking and walking.
• The disease progresses differently for every
  different patient.
• In some patients it develops quickly, and in
  others it develops more slowly.
• Often Parkinsons distorts ability to reason,
  also causing depression and anxiety.
• Doctors look for four symptoms to diagnose
  Parkinsons.
• Tremor or shaking of limbs is a common symptoms
  but one third of diagnosed patients dont
  experience this. Tremors tend to begin on one
  hand.

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Symptoms(cont.)

• Stiffness in joints is another common symptom
  along with rigidity of limbs witch makes movement
  difficult and also causing muscle pains. This
  causes little everyday tasks to become
  challenging because of impaired muscles.
• Bradykinesia, another symptom, causes slow
  movement and speech, shuffling walk, and cramped
  handwriting.
• Secondary symptoms include difficulty in
  swallowing, unchanging facial expressions,
  drooling, dizziness and difficulty in urination.
• Mental disorders, such as dementia, also occur in
  Parkinsons patients.
• Other mental problems include failing memory,
  short attention span, and personality changes.
• Depression occurs in 40 of all patients.
  Patients also experience Anxiety, Panic disorder,
  and inability to sleep.

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Causes
Causes

• Parkinson disease develops as the substanta nigra
  degenerates.
• In Parkinson disease, nigral cells get destroyed,
  which reduces the supply of dopamine to the
  straitum.
• Not enough dopamine causes nerve cells to
  activate improperly.
• There factors in the cause of Parkinson disease
  are genetics, environmental agents, and
  abnormalities in cells.
• Genetics can put a person at higher risk for
  getting parkinson disease.
• Three genes, when mutated, help in the
  development of this disease.
• These genes code for the development of the
  proteins Alpha-synnuclein,(chromsome4)
  parkin,(chromosome6) and a certain protein in the
  family of Ubiquitin.
• Since these proteins clean-up protein deposits,
  accumulation of proteins could deteriorate nigral
  cells.

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Causes(cont.)

• Environmental factors Before the industrial
  revolution, Parkinson disease was rare.
• The development of machines, which produce
  environmental toxins, could be a partial cause
  for this disease.
• People now have a longer life span, so that could
  also be a factor in the raise the amount of
  Parkinson patients.
• Various drugs, chemicals and viruses, can cause
  diseases similar to Parkinson disease.
• Abnormality in cells Free radicals are damaging
  molecules produced in cells in response to
  injury. They can cause cell damage, destruction
  to the lining of cell membranes, and destruction
  of mitochondria.
• Dopamine producing cells are also targeted.

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Similar Diseases

• Some diseases have similar symptoms as Parkinson
  but they can be distinguished in two to five
  years.
• Progressive supranuclear palsy causes slow
  movement and balance problems similar to
  Parkinson, but also causes eye movement problems.
• Parkinson disease-amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
  found in Guam in the Chamorro People and in the
  Mariana Islands causes muscle loss.
• Multiple System Atrophy or Shy-drager syndrome
  also has symptoms similar to Parkinson disease
  but more severe.
• Another way to tell that these diseases aren't
  Parkinson Disease is when the drugs for Parkinson
  wont work on them

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Treatment

• There is no known cure for Parkinson Disease, but
  symptoms can be lessened by drugs or surgery.
• Various drugs replace dopamine levels in the
  brain but just a dose of dopamine is not enough
  because it cannot get from the bloodstream to the
  brain.
• A few ani-parkinson drugs include Levodopa,
  Dopamine Agonists,Anticholinergics, and
  Amantadine.
• Surgical Treatment can also be used.
• In the 50s and 60s, Brain surgery was used
  although being rarely successful.
• Recently, surgery has been used again to destroy
  infected part of the brain.
• Both Thalamotomy and using the process of manual
  drilling in to the brain and zapping it with an
  electric prod are used.

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Bibliography
www.cellsalive.com www.ninds.nih.gov www.encarta.c
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