Parkinson's disease



Parkinson's disease

Case Study 1

Outline the incidence/prevalence and the main cause of Parkinson's disease in Australia.

Australia might be the one of the most developed nations on this planet, but it is exactly not known how many people are affected by the Parkinson's disease. Even Parkinson Australia is unable to provide the exact details of the count. Parkinson disease has affected approximately 6.3 million people worldwide which is unfortunately increasing in number. When discussing in the context of neurology, it is a neurological condition that is second most common progressive. (Parkinsons.org.au, 2013).

The number of people affected by the Parkinson disease has been estimated around 100,000 by Howard Foley Institute. The data is however confined to Australia and collected via various statistical techniques (Lemone et al, 2013).

It is still unknown what the cause of Parkinson disease is. The cause of the disease might be unknown, but the symptoms are not as difficult to interpret and identify. As a result of this enigmatic disease, dopamine that is produced by the brain nerve cells, begin to die. The function of dopamine is very essential. Our movement is coordinated by dopamine as it is a chemical that sends messages to the brain. If the dopamine begins to die, the chemical is absent and therefore no messages are sent to the brain which in turn hinders our movement. As per latest researches we are now aware of the fact that when around seventy percent of nerve cells have died the symptoms related to Parkinson begin. Although it is believed that Parkinson disease is not inherited, there is some evidence which indicates that this disease might be found in those who have genetic linkages with others who have the same disease. The risk of Parkinson increases when exposed to toxins and viruses (Randall, 2013).

Clearly and concisely discuss the clinical manifestations of Mr. Graham in relation to the path physiology of Parkinson's disease.

In the early and initial stages Parkinson's disease is not always easy to diagnose. There are severe complications in diagnosing the diseases in early stages. In Parkinson's disease, there are no diagnostic tests to prove that the patient has a disease. In order to diagnose it properly, the patient has to pass on and not only this, an autopsy also has to be performed in order to confirm the disease. Physical examination and assessment of motor symptoms is compulsory in order to diagnose Parkinson's disease. The three most prominent and common signs of Parkinson's disease are rigidity, rest tremor and bradykinesia (Behari et al, 2011).

The symptoms of Parkinson's disease are not confined to the above. There are several other signs such as feeling tired, poor hand coordination, slow or difficult movements and problems with handwriting. It has widely been observed that those who are hit by Parkinson's disease are soft spoken and often lose their facial expressions (Randall, 2012).

From the case study, it can be very easily be seen that Mr. Graham is the victim of Parkinson's disease as he is suffering from the same ...