need help!!! with doing a paper for Parkinson disease?

15.12.09 / parkinson disease treatment / Author: Alex
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i am doing it on Parkinson’s disease

i have to do a 1-3 page paper on a disease and i need it to be in this form

1-3 paragraphs about the drug
2-3 paragraphs signs and symptoms
1-3 paragraphs about the treatment
what is Parkinson’s disease is a disorder of certain nerve cells in a part of the brain (substantia nigra) that produces dopamine. Dopamine is a chemical messenger, or neurotransmitter, that the brain uses to help direct and control movement. In Parkinson’s disease, these dopamine-producing nerve cells break down, dopamine levels drop, and brain signals directing movement become abnormal.There is no known cure for Parkinson’s disease. Several different types of medication may be used to relieve symptoms. Brain surgery or deep brain stimulation also may be used to control symptoms in some people

Parkinson’s disease is a disease of the central nervous system that causes problems with body motions, including tremor (shakiness), rigidity (muscle stiffness), slowed body movements, unstable posture, and difficulty walking. It happens when nerve cells (neurons) in a part of the brain called the substantia nigra gradually die. These cells normally produce a chemical called dopamine that helps

Comments: 2

De Moon // December 15th, 2009 - 12:25 am

You’re not doing a paper, you’re asking us to do your paper so that you can get the credit without learning much or doing enough.

Of course you can get a Wikipedia answer and pretty much cut and paste the entire paper but don’t think that the person grading your paper won’t recognize it.

If you are going to go this route you need several resources from which to borrow.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson‘s_disease

One of the best resources will carry you right down what you need:
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/parkinsons_disease/parkinsons_disease.htm

The Mayo clinic is in easy to read form and provides all of your answers:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/parkinsons-disease/DS00295

http://www.pdf.org/en/understanding_pd

http://www.michaeljfox.org/living.cfm

All of the above links will take you to the information and you will be able to produce a paper which will teach you something as you use that information. And you can have some pride in yourself.

As a PwP, I don’t want to see anyone writing about PD who has taken shortcuts to find answers without knowing what they have actually read.

Max // December 15th, 2009 - 12:25 am

Signs & Sympoms

Parkinson’s Disease affects movement (motor symptoms). Other typical symptoms include disorders of mood, behaviour, thinking, and sensation (non-motor symptoms). Patients’ individual symptoms may be quite dissimilar and progression of the disease is also distinctly individual.

Motor symptoms
The cardinal symptoms are:

Tremor: normally 4-6 Hz tremor, maximal when the limb is at rest, and decreased with voluntary movement. It is typically unilateral at onset. This is the most apparent and well-known symptom, though an estimated 30% of patients have little perceptible tremor; these are classified as akinetic-rigid.
Rigidity: stiffness; increased muscle tone. In combination with a resting tremor, this produces a ratchety, "cogwheel" rigidity when the limb is passively moved.
bradykinesia/Akinesia: respectively, slowness or absence of movement. Rapid, repetitive movements produce a dysrhythmic and decremental loss of amplitude.
Postural instability: failure of postural reflexes, which leads to impaired balance and falls.
Other motor symptoms include:

Gait and posture disturbances:
Shuffling: gait is characterized by short steps, with feet barely leaving the ground. Small obstacles tend to cause the patient to trip.
Decreased arm-swing.
Turning "en bloc": rather than the usual twisting of the neck and trunk and pivoting on the toes, PD patients keep their neck and trunk rigid, requiring multiple small steps to accomplish a turn.
Stooped, forward-flexed posture. In severe forms, the head and upper shoulders may be bent at a right angle relative to the trunk (camptocormia).
Festination: a combination of stooped posture, imbalance, and short steps. It leads to a gait that gets progressively faster and faster, often ending in a fall.
Gait freezing: "freezing" is a manifestation of akinesia (an inability to move). Gait freezing is characterized by an inability to move the feet which may worsen in tight, cluttered spaces or when attempting to initiate gait.
Dystonia (in about 20% of cases): abnormal, sustained, painful twisting muscle contractions, often affecting the foot and ankle (mainly toe flexion and foot inversion) which often interferes with gait.
Speech and swallowing disturbances.
Hypophonia: soft speech. Speech quality tends to be soft, hoarse, and monotonous. Some people with Parkinson’s disease claim that their tongue is "heavy" or have cluttered speech.
Monotonic speech.
Festinating speech: excessively rapid, soft, poorly-intelligible speech.
Drooling: most likely caused by a weak, infrequent swallow and stooped posture.
Dysphagia: impaired ability to swallow. Can lead to aspiration, pneumonia.
Other motor symptoms:
Fatigue (up to 50% of cases);
Masked faces (a mask-like face also known as hypomimia), with infrequent blinking;
Difficulty rolling in bed or rising from a seated position;
Micrographia (small, cramped handwriting);
Impaired fine motor dexterity and motor coordination;
Impaired gross motor coordination;
Akathisia, the inability to sit still.

Treatment
Parkinson’s disease is a chronic disorder that requires broad-based management including patient and family education, support group services, general wellness maintenance, physiotherapy, exercise, and nutrition. At present, there is no cure for PD, but medications or surgery can provide relief from the symptoms.

Levodopa
The most widely used form of treatment is L-dopa in various forms. L-dopa is transformed into dopamine in the dopaminergic neurons by L-aromatic amino acid decarboxylase (often known by its former name dopa-decarboxylase). However, only 1-5% of L-DOPA enters the dopaminergic neurons. The remaining L-DOPA is often metabolised to dopamine elsewhere, causing a wide variety of side effects. Due to feedback inhibition, L-dopa results in a reduction in the endogenous formation of L-dopa, and so eventually becomes counterproductive.

Carbidopa and benserazide are dopa decarboxylase inhibitors. They help to prevent the metabolism of L-dopa before it reaches the dopaminergic neurons and are generally given as combination preparations of carbidopa/levodopa (co-careldopa) (e.g. Sinemet, Parcopa) and benserazide/levodopa (co-beneldopa) (e.g. Madopar). There are also controlled release versions of Sinemet and Madopar that spread out the effect of the L-dopa. Duodopa is a combination of levodopa and carbidopa, dispersed as a viscous gel. Using a patient-operated portable pump, the drug is continuously delivered via a tube directly into the upper small intestine, where it is rapidly absorbed. There is also Stalevo (Carbidopa, Levodopa and Entacapone).

Tolcapone inhibits the COMT enzyme, thereby prolonging the effects of L-dopa, and so has been used to complement L-dopa. However, due to its possible side effects such as liver failure, it’s limited in its availability. A similar drug, entacapone has not been shown to cause significant alterations of live

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