What do you picture when you think of a person with Parkinson's? Tremors, slow movement, shuffled walk, the basics I guess. I was surprised to find how full bodied this disease actually can be. It seems to affect nearly all portions of the body in some way.
If you know of any additional symptoms or question anything listed I'd love to hear from you.
Non-MOTOR
Hallucinations and also here
Confusion - delusions/paranoid overtones
Cognitive dysfunction - executive
Dementia
Short term memory - recent events
Difficulty making decisions
Multi-tasking
Visuospatial skills difficulties judging distances
Slowed cognitive speed (Bradyphrenia).
Language dysfunction and also here
Attention difficulties
Psychosis
Impulse control
Mood disorders
depression
anxiety
apathy/abulia
anhedonia
fatigue
Alexithymia - a personality trait characterized by difficulties identifying and describing feelings and a reduced tendency to think about emotions.
Sleep disturbances
Sleep fragmentation
Initial Insomnia
Excessive daytime sleepiness - somnolence.
REM sleep behavioral disorder (RBD) - vivid dreams, acting out
Autonomic dysfunction
Urinary urgency/frequency
Constipation and also here
Orthostasis
Sexual dysfunction and/or lack of interest
Excess perspiration - abnormal sweating
Difficulty swallowing
Smell
Olfactory dysfunction
lack of smell
phantom smells
Dermatological
Seborrhea
Oily skin
Nice post, Don, I'm working on a talk for my support group on non-motor symptoms, and that's as exhaustive and well-organized a list as I've seen. It's sort of overwhelming to look at how long it is. It tells you something about how complex the disease is, and how widespread it is in our systems. PD is far more than a brain disorder, that's clear. Now I'm getting depressed, but instead of a mood disorder, it just seems like a rational response to the scope of that list. Fortunately, I'm not a terribly rational person and I expect I will soon revert to my doggedly hopeful self. And thank you, BTW, for recommending my book, I appreciate it. Best regards, peter
ReplyDeleteAs a card carrying eternal optimist I look at the extensive list this way Peter. When I only thought there were around 20 symptoms of Parkinson's Disease I was saddened to think I was exhibiting over 70% of the them. Now that I know there are over 70 symptoms, new math tells me I only exhibit about 15%. From my warped perspective, the more symptoms we attribute to Parkinson's the healthier I get.
ReplyDelete