A Parkinson’s Glossary N To Z

N

Neurodegenerative
Diseases in which the nervous system degenerates, like Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s. They are characterized by the loss of cells in the central nervous system.

Neurotransmitter
Your body makes special chemicals that help carry messages from the brain to nerve cells and between nerve cells. These are called neurotransmitters. The loss of the neurotransmitter dopamine is the cause of most of the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

Norepinephrine
A neurotransmitter that is responsible for feelings of well-being. Studies show that as Parkinson’s disease progresses, levels of norepinephrine are reduced, and researchers speculate that it may be the end result of a process that starts with the loss of dopamine.

O

On-Off Phenomenon
A side effect of long term therapy with levodopa, the most common treatment for Parkinson’s disease. The on-off phenomenon is described as ‘fluctuations in the ability to move’. It’s a sign that the effectiveness of L-dopa is wearing off.

Off
Patients and doctors describe the difference between when medication is working and when it is not in terms of ‘off’ and ‘on’. When the medication is not working, or is wearing off, the patient is ‘off’, and the Parkinson’s symptoms reappear.

On
When medication is working at its best, the state of motor activity is described as ‘on’.

P

PD
Abbreviation for Parkinson’s disease.

Palilalia
Stuttering or stammering in speech. When Parkinson’s disease affects the muscles that control speech, palilalia is one of the results.

Pallidotomy
A surgical treatment to help relieve the symptoms of advanced Parkinson’s disease. It involves the destruction of a small group of cells in the globus pallidus to prevent ‘scrambled messages’ from leaving the brain and causing abnormal movements and other symptoms.

Paranoia
A symptom of dementia that appears in some patients with late stage Parkinson’s disease. It is a belief that others are ‘out to get’ the patient in the absence of any evidence. It is one of many psychological conditions that researchers believe eventually result from the lose of the dopamine producing cells in the brain.

Parkinson’s Mask
Because Parkinson’s disease affects small muscle movement, both voluntary and involuntary, facial expressions are often affected in people who have Parkinson’s. This results in an unmoving, mask-like expression that is referred to as Parkinson’s mask

Parkinsonian Syndromes
A number of disorders that are related to Parkinson’s disease and share some of the symptoms, particularly bradykinesia and rigidity and tremor. They have other symptoms and pathology that distinguish them from Parkinson’s disease, though.

Parkinsonism
Parkonsonism is a clinical term that refers to an entire group of conditions that share the most typical symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

Postural Instability
A term that simply means problems with balance.

Postural Tremor
One of the tremors associated with Parkinson’s disease. A postural tremor gets worse when you stretch your hands out in front of you.

Prognosis
A medical term that means ‘what will probably happen in this disease’. Most people use it to mean the eventual outcome of a disease.

Propulsion
Forward movement, usually associated with walking.

Psychosis
One of the symptoms of dementia which is sometimes a result of Parkinson’s disease. It’s characterized by losing contact with reality, and includes delusions, hallucinations and paranoia.

R

Range of Motion
Range of motion is a measure of how far a joint will move between completely straight to fully bent. Rigidity that is associated with Parkinson’s disease compromises the range of motion by affecting the muscles dependent on the joint.

Resting Tremor
Generally, the first symptom of Parkinson’s disease that is noticed. It’s a shaking that happens when a limb is relaxed.

Retropulsion
Stumbling or falling backwards. It’s a term that’s used to describe one of the problems of balance in Parkinson’s disease.

Rigidity
One of the five major symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, rigidity is tightness or tensing in the muscle when it is at rest. A patient may feel is as ‘stiffness’.

S

Serotonin
One of the neurotransmitters produced by the brain. People in the later stages of Parkinson’s disease often have reduced levels of serotonin, which leads researchers to believe that there is a subtle connection between dopamine levels and the ability of the brain to produce other chemical neurotransmitters.

Shaking Palsy
When James Parkinson originally described the symptoms of the disease that is named for him, he called it ‘shaking palsy’.

Sialorrhea
The medical term for drooling, which is often seen in late stage Parkinson’s disease.

Side Effect
An effect of taking a drug that is different from the reason for which it is prescribed. Many of the drugs prescribed to treat Parkinson’s disease have side effects that interfere with normal functioning.

Striatum
A part of the brain that contains dopamine receptors. It is the largest part of the basal ganglia and controls walking, balance and movement.

Substantia Nigra
The part of the brain that is affected by Parkinson’s disease. It’s located in the brainstem, and contains the cells that produce dopamine. It’s the loss of those cells that produce the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

T

Thalamic (or Pallidal) Stimulation
One of the newer treatments for Parkinson’s disease that involves electrically stimulating cells in the thalamus or globus pallidus to treat symptoms of Parkinson’s, rather than surgically destroying the cells.

Thalmatomy
A traditional treatment to stop tremors on one side of the body. It involves surgically destroying a small group of cells in the thalamus, and results in improving the symptoms of tremors on the opposite side of the body. the side of the body opposite the surgery.

Thalamus
A major area of the brain that receives information from the basal ganglia. One treatment for symptoms of Parkinson’s disease is to destroy a small group of cells in the thalamus

Tremor
One of the major symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. A tremor is the rhythmic shaking of a limb that occurs when the muscles are at rest, or when they are initiating (or starting) a movement. In later stages, tremors may also appear during movements.

W
Wearing-Off
The end period of effectiveness of a dose of L-dopa, used to treat Parkinson’s disease. In long-term treatment, the wearing-off period often occurs after only a few hours, long before the next dose is due.




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