Although the characteristic symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD) involve motor functions such as tremor, rigidity, slowness of movement and loss of postural reflex, there are other neurological and psychiatric symptoms present in later stages of the disease which point to definite changes in brain function and personality of PD patients.
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Parkinson’s disease patients, especially in the end stages of the disease, often have a significant amount of muscle atrophy. This muscle wasting or loss of muscle tissue could be due to reduced physical activity because of the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease or if bedridden. Added to the reduced or lack of physical activity, an additional factor to take into account is that Parkinson’s disease is in most cases a disease of old age, a period of life where some amount of normal muscle wasting is to be expected.
Physiotherapy and a home exercise program for Parkinson’s patients do help to prevent this muscle atrophy to a certain extent. Apart from muscle atrophy, some amount of cerebral or brain atrophy is also to be expected in people suffering from Parkinson’s disease, which is in excess to that found in normal people, taking into account the age of the patient in both circumstances.
>Parkinson’s disease dementia is often difficult to differentiate from dementia due to other causes and it may be due to the disease itself or as a result of the drugs taken for the disease. Dementia is a state where there is loss of previously learnt functions, or progressively impaired memory, or a marked change in personality and may be accompanied by hallucinations or depression. In Parkinson’s disease the development of dementia is a late phenomenon, often occurring 10 to 15 years after onset of the disease, and it develops in about 20% of patients. Dementia is less likely to develop in early onset of Parkinson’s disease was below 50 and more likely if it symptoms of Parkinson’s disease started after the age of 70.
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