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Parkinson'S Disease, Also Known As Pd, Shaking Palsy, And

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Parkinson 's disease, also known as PD, shaking palsy, and paralysis agitans is an idiopathic neurodegenerative disorder; it rises from an unknown cause and increases in severity over time (Ronken). The disease was named after English physician James Parkinson, who first described it in 1817 (Weiner). PD can be defined as the degeneration of neurons in the substantia nigra, which is the area of the brain that contains dopamine cells and regulates movement. As the degeneration of neurons occurs, the brain loses the ability to generate body movement, which leads to the characteristic symptoms of PD (Weiner). The disease affects approximately 10 million people worldwide and is currently incurable (Weiner). Therefore, scientists have been …show more content…

These nonmotor or autonomic symptoms include depression, apathy, anxiety, sweating, sexual dysfunction, memory problems, sleep disturbances, bladder problems, and constipation (Weiner). Among these autonomic symptoms, depression is the most common psychiatric symptom in patients with PD since an individual 's quality of life decreases and they soon are unable to care for themselves once their symptoms interfere with their everyday life (Tuite). Despite the fact that the cause of Parkinson 's Disease remains unknown, the disease has been linked to aging and other genetic and environmental factors. PD is one of the most common causes of disability in the elderly and is usually diagnosed in the fifth or sixth decade (Ronken). However, 10% of cases are in individuals who are diagnosed before they 're 40 years old, which is known as early onset Parkinson 's (Tuite). And because the symptoms of PD become progressively worse as one ages and the chance of getting it increases as we age, scientists believe that aging is the biggest risk factor in PD (Ronken).
Furthermore, scientists have been actively studying PD for decades now, and noteworthy results have been alluded to. Researchers have discovered that genetic factors alone do not play a role in Parkinson 's Disease, but do play a role in rare cases of familial PD. Surveys have been done on both monozygotic and dizygotic twins to determine whether the disease was genetic or not. The surveys concluded

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