Movement diseases are a group of neurological dysfunctions typical of an alteration of the motor control on a cerebral level. These conditions affect quickness, fluidity and quality of the movement and can manifest with an excess or reduction of voluntary or involuntary movements. Parkinson\u2019s is the most common neuro-degenerative motion disease. There are other more rare motion diseases similar to Parkinson’s (like Lewy deficiency, multi systemic atrophy, supranuclear progressive paralysis, corticobasal syndrome, vascular Parkinson\u2019s, iatrogenic parkinsonism) that share some characteristics with Parkinson\u2019s disease but show some peculiarities in the disease\u2019s mechanism, clinical progression and treatment. <\/p>\n\n
Parkinson\u2019s disease – What is it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Parkinson’s disease is a frequent neurological disease that affects more than 1-4% of people older than 65. It is caused by the progressive loss of nerve cells that normally produce dopamine, a molecule that controls numerous brain functions. There are several clinical manifestations of Parkinson’s disease and may include movement control disorders (e.g., tremor, slowdown, muscle stiffness, changes in walk and balance) and non-motor dysfunction (e.g., blood pressure control disorder or bladder function disorder, depression, sleep disturbance, cognitive decline). <\/p>\n\n Parkinson’s disease – how is it diagnosed?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Diagnosis happens with a close clinical evaluation made by a motor dysfunctions specialized neurologist. Since it does not exist a specific test, the approach combines more elements, such as clinical history, neurological exam, neuroradiological exams (cerebral MRI and cerebral scintigraphy with DaTSCAN) and a response to pharmacological therapy. For the non motor dysfunctions evaluation (hypertension and bladder control) more physicians can be involved (cardiologist, urologist, neuropsychologist). <\/p>\n\n Parkinson\u2019s disease – How to handle it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Even if there is no therapy available to cure Parkinson\u2019s and delay its progression, patients can benefit from numerous pharmacological and rehabilitative therapies able to control the symptoms and improve the quality of living. Movement diseases are a group of neurological dysfunctions typical of an alteration of the motor control on a cerebral level. These conditions affect quickness, fluidity and quality of the movement and can manifest with an excess or reduction of voluntary or involuntary movements. Parkinson\u2019s is the most common neuro-degenerative motion disease. There are other more…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":7520,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[63,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-en","category-highlights","category-63","category-55","description-off"],"yoast_head":"\n