...Introduction Parkinson's disease may be described as a progressive neurological disorder, it arises from degeneration of neurons in a region of the brain responsible for co-ordinating movement. The neuronal damage results in a shortage of the brain signalling chemical (neurotransmitter) known as dopamine, resulting in the movement impairments which characterize the disease. 71% of Parkinson’s disease cases are due to a sporadic cause, usually influenced by environmental factors. (1) However, Parkinson’s disease may also be caused by genetic mutations of 13 genetic loci, PARK1-13. These mutations may cause autosomal dominant or recessive Parkinson’s disease. Six of the thirteen loci feature genes which have been discovered and published by...
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...Parkinson’s Disease The genetic disorder I chose as my final project is Parkinson’s disease. I chose this topic because I have had numerous patients with Parkinson’s disease and I wanted to learn more about it. Before my research, I didn’t know much about the genetic structures or processes that are involved with Parkinson’s, I just knew the symptoms my patients exhibited, some of which included: uncontrollable tremors, slow motor decline where the patient became unable to feed/dress/take care of self, and mental decline with dementia/hallucinations (www.pdf.org, 2014, para: symptoms). In my experience, it is a hard disease to control later in life because it tends to be a slow progressing disease, which tends to leave the patient completely...
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...Genetic disorders are often caused by a change in one's DNA. One example of a genetic disorder that affects many people is Parkinson's disease. Parkinson's disease is a genetic disorder of the central nervous system that most commonly affects the motor system. Parkinson's disease in most cases occurs with no family history. It can’t be inherited because it is recessive which means two copies of the same gene are altered. If somebody were to have Parkinson's disease it would affect the movements of there body. Some things that would occur if someone had this disorder are the patient would feel a tremor in just one hand, the person's movements would feel very slow, your balance would be off, and you would have daytime sleepiness and often be having the same nightmares. As time goes on the patient’s movements would gradually become worse and worse starting off with slow movements and eventually becoming wheelchair bound. The early symptoms are one of the best indicators for a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. There are no definitive diagnostics test for Parkinsons. Before a doctor would diagnose a patient with Parkinson's disease, he would perform several tests and examinations. The doctor looks into family history to see if anyone in the family has had this disorder. After that they may do some sets of neurological tests to see if...
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...The article that I have chosen is Early Detection of Parkinson’s disease through handwriting. The topic of this article is disorders and syndromes: Parkinson’s disease. The authors of this article are Sara Rosenblum, Margalit Samuel, Sharon Zlotnik, Llana Erikh, and Llana Schlesinger. The source I used to come to this article is sciencedaily.com. Dr. Ilana Schlesinger, head of the Center for Movement Disorders and Parkinson's disease at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center and occupational therapists helped to conduct this experiment. Prof. Sara Rosenblum, of the University of Haifa’s Department of Occupational Therapy, initiated the study. She believed that identifying the changes in handwriting could lead to an early diagnosis of the illness. During this study, they gathered forty participants, all adults with at least twelve years of schooling. Half of the participants healthy, and the other half known to be in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease (before motor signs are visible). They were instructed to write their names and a given address on a regular piece of paper that was placed on electronic tablet, while using a special pen that had pressure-sensitive sensors operated by the pen when it hits the writing surface. The number of parameters: writing form, time required, and the pressured exerted were compared using a computerized analysis. Once the results were in, it showed a great difference between the healthy and the patients. All subjects, except for one had their...
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...year 1817, a man named James Parkinson diagnosed the disease once known as ‘shaking palsy,’ as Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s disease is a central nervous system disorder that affects around 1.5 million people in America alone. James Parkinson was a doctor in London where he wrote a paper about the symptoms of Parkinson. Symptoms for Parkinson’s disease are tremors, rigidity, bradykinesia, and postural instability. Usually these symptoms are caused in result of degeneration of nerve cells in the Mostly older people have a better chance of catching the disease than younger adults. Parkinson’s disease typically begins between the ages of 50 and 65, hitting about 1% of the population in that age group. For many decades there was not...
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...Disorder Paper LaTridia M. Chambers Psych/575 November 15, 2012 Dr. Fred Benner Disorder Paper One of the mostly commonly know neurological disorders within society today is Parkinson’s disease. It is classified as a neurodegenerative disorder (Healthwise, 2010). As of today there isn’t a known cure for Parkinson’s disease. Most patients are diagnosed after age of 60, but symptoms can begin much sooner. The most well-known case of this happening is the case of celebrity Michael J. Fox that was diagnosed at the age of 30 with Parkinson’s disease (MedicineNet, 2004). In order to understand treatment methods, it is essential to understand the history, causes, symptoms and pathology of Parkinson’s disease. The disease received its name from James Parkinson, an English doctor (Jankovic, 2008). Parkinson wrote a paper in 1817 entitled “An Essay on the Shaking Palsy.” In the essay, Parkinson reviewed the cases of 6 of his patients who exhibited symptoms of what is now known as Parkinson’s disease. The disease is complicated to explain. It is caused by a defect in nerve cells in the brain. In normal brains, nerve cells make dopamine. Dopamine in turn is the chemical that tells parts of the brain to send signals that control movement. The disease takes place because there is a deficiency of dopamine because of a defect with the nerve cells that create the chemical (Freed, 2001). Dopamine in a healthy brain travels between two areas of the brain: The Substantia Nigra...
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...Diseases are sometimes extremely devastating and cruel. Some diseases move very rapidly while others are slow and painful. Treatments are sometimes useful yet other times nothing can stop the silent beasts that lurk in the body. Parkinson’s disease is a slow moving disease that slowly corrupts the brain. Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic motor disorder that causes tremors, rigidity, slowed body movements, unstable posture and abnormal gait. This happens when neurons, nerve cells, in a part or the brain called the substantial nigra gradually die. These cells normally produce dopamine, a chemical that helps relay messages between areas of the brain that control body movement. The death of the cells leads to abnormal low levels of dopamine, and causes difficulty in controlling muscle tension and muscle movement both at rest and during periods of activity. PD as of now affects about 500,000 Americans, with about 50,000 new cases diagnosed each year. It is generally a disease that affects people of late or middle age at about age 60 however about 5 percent of patients have early-onset PD and are younger than 40 years old when symptoms begin. PD is slightly more common in men then women. So far scientists have not determined the reason why some people develop PD and others do not. Some experts blame a process called oxidation. During oxidation unstable molecules that areproduced in the brain as a result of its normal chemical reactions which ultimately damage the brain. Another...
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...Personal Impact Paper University of Phoenix Health and Chronic Disease Management NUR/427 Professor Gina Stephens May 19, 2014 Personal Impact Paper I will be discussing in this paper Parkinson Disease, and the impact it has on the patient as well as the patient’s family. I will be talking about how the patient first found out about the disease and how the disease has impact the patient personal, social, and financial life. Parkinson’s disease is a type of movement disorder, it is a progressive, chronic disease that affect the nervous system. Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative condition in the United States. It is more prevalent in males than in females. Onset of the disease is 50 -60 years of age, onset earlier than that is referred to as early onset of Parkinson’s disease. There is no cure at the moment for Parkinson’s disease but medication can help alleviate symptoms. According the National Parkinson’s Foundation approximately 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with the disease each year. An estimated seven to ten million people are living with this disease worldwide (Oberdorf, Schmidt, & Schmidt, 2010). The patient I will be discussing on this paper is a 43 year old male. I will call him Tom, to protect his privacy. Tom was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease when he was 40 years old, his symptoms though started when he was 39 year of age. Tom was a healthy, athletic, strong individual. Tom was married with two kids, when he was diagnosed...
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...McVey Cecil College Abstract Whether it is the study of biopsychology and other fields of psychology or neuroscience, all psychologists and scientists are trying to understand the functions of the brain. The body and mind connection and how it reacts to certain behaviors or illnesses. Most all psychological functioning can be reduced to underlying brain processes. This should serve as reason alone as to why biology plays an important part in the study of psychology. Psychological factors play a role in whether a person develops a mental illness and in how well they recover from a mental illness, yet biological and genetic risk factors, or predispositions, are fundamentals to understanding mental illnesses. In this paper, we will look at Parkinson’s disease as an example of how biology has brought us to a deeper understanding of the psychology of mental illness. Psychology is an academic and applied discipline that involves the scientific study of mental functions and behaviors. Psychologists attempt to understand the role of mental functions in individual and social behavior, while also exploring the psychological and neurobiological processes that underlie certain functions and behaviors. For this reason, biology plays a very important role in the study of psychology. Psychology determines what people perceive to feel and behave, but underlying it all, ultimately determining the way we act, feel and behave, is biology. A biological perspective is relevant to...
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...the diagnosis often changes over time, according to a paper in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry. Use of rigid criteria does not necessarily help make the diagnosis. Parkinsonian syndrome refers to conditions that have the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, such as tremors, stooped posture, slowness, and shuffling gait. The term is simply used to describe a patient's symptoms; Parkinson's disease may or may not be the actual cause. For instance multiple small strokes can cause a parkinsonian syndrome. "Accurate diagnosis of Parkinson's disease is important both in clinical practice, where it will influence management, and in research, where the validity of findings may be compromised if studies include (different) conditions," Dr. Carl Counsell, of the University of Aberdeen, UK, and colleagues write. The report describes 66 patients who were followed for at least one year after an initial diagnosis of "possible or definite parkinsonian syndrome." After follow-up of around 29 months, the clinical diagnosis had changed in 22 patients (33 percent). Most of the changes (82 percent) occurred in the first year. Reason for the modified diagnoses included development of additional clinical features, early thinking impairment, x-ray results, poor response to drug therapy, and lack of disease progression. More than a third of those who were misdiagnosed with Parkinson's disease were eventually determined to have a related problem...
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...Fall is a serious problem in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) due to the nature of the disease that impairs gait, motor, and cognition (Canning, et al., 2015; Gao, et al., 2014; Mirelman, et al., 2011). Sixty percent of people with PD fall annually and two-third of them fall repeatedly (Canning et al., 2015). Falls may lead to injury, pain, functional decline, fear of falling, and reduction in quality of life (Canning, et al., 2015; Gao, et al., 2014). Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of exercise interventions that could prevent or reduce fall incidence in people with PD. Computerized literature searches were conducted using CINAHL and PubMed. For CINAHL, “fall prevention” AND “Parkinson’s disease” were used...
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...Neurodevelopmental and Neurocognitive Disorders Paper PSY/410 Marice Lynnette Jones 05/09/2016 Karen Wood The brain is a magnificent organ within the human body. The brain controls everything from our movement, involuntary functions, thoughts and emotions. Due to its fragile nature, the brain is protected very well by thick layer of membrane called dura mater and encased by a skull (Butcher, 2014). The main focus for this paper is to describe one neurodevelopmental disorder and one neurocognitive disorder. The behavioral criteria for each disorder will be discussed along with incidence rates and their causes. Options for treatment based on two different theoretical models will as provide a valuable insight for the disorders. Neurodevelopmental disorders refer to a group of conditions that presents itself during the developmental period. These disorders impair development or the central nervous system causing an effect on emotions, learning ability, self-control and memory. The most common neurodevelopmental disorder is ADHD. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder causes children to have trouble paying attention, control impulsive behavior and overly active. There are no known causes or risk factors, however a recent twin research studies have linked ADHD with genes. Along with genes, possible contributors towards ADHD would be injury to the brain, environmental exposures, alcohol and tobacco use during pregnancy, premature delivery, and low birth weight (CDC, 2016)....
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...PHI 130 25 February 2015 The consequences of Human Embryonic Stem cell Research To say there are a few topics or ideas out there which cause both scientific and moral arguments is an understatement. Arguably, one of the most divisive scientific advances of the twentieth century and likely an advance with the most potential to improve the wellbeing of mankind; is met with an equal amount of derision and moral objection. The human embryo is nothing more than a mass of stem cells, or cells without specific function, yet. The embryo isn’t likely to have feelings or sense of awareness, but it is how every human starts life and if given roughly 14 days in the womb, would develop the beginnings of a heart, brain and...
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...Alzheimer’s Disease: Not Just Loss of Memory This is a 8 page, 10 resource paper discussing Alzheimer’s disease, discussing the history, symptoms, diagnosis and hopes for a cure of the disease. Alzheimer’s Disease: Not Just Loss of Memory Introduction Alzheimer's disease, a neurodegenerative brain disease, is the most common cause of dementia. It currently afflicts about 4 million Americans and is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. Furthermore, Alzheimer’s disease is the leading cause of mental impairment in elderly people and accounts for a large percentage of admissions to assisted living homes, nursing homes, and other long-term care facilities. Psychotic symptoms, such as delusions and hallucinations, have been reported in a large proportion of patients with this disease. In fact, it is the presence of these psychotic symptoms can lead to early institutionalization (Bassiony, et all, 2000). Learning about Alzheimer’s disease and realizing that it is much more that just a loss of memory can benefit the families of those with the disorder as well as society as a whole. The purpose of this paper is to look at the disorder, as well as to discuss the history, symptoms, diagnosis and hopes of a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. History Around the turn of the century, two kinds of dementia were defined by Emil Kraepin: senile and presenile. The presenile form was described more in detail by Alois Alzheimer as a progressive deterioration of...
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...BEL311 ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES TERM PAPER ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE: NOT JUST A LOSS OF MEMORY Prepared by: XXXXXXXXX (matric no.) XXXXXXXXX (matric no.) Group XXX Prepared for: XXXXXXXXXXXX Date of Submission: July 2011 Introduction Alzheimer's disease, a neurodegenerative brain disease, is the most common cause of dementia. It currently afflicts about 4 million Americans and is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. Furthermore, Alzheimer’s disease is the leading cause of mental impairment in elderly people and accounts for a large percentage of admissions to assisted living homes, nursing homes, and other long-term care facilities. Psychotic symptoms, such as delusions and hallucinations, have been reported in a large proportion of patients with this disease. In fact, it is the presence of these psychotic symptoms can lead to early institutionalization (Bassiony, et al, 2000). Learning about Alzheimer’s disease and realizing that it is much more that just a loss of memory can benefit the families of those with the disorder as well as society as a whole. This paper is to look at the disorder, as well as to discuss the history, symptoms, diagnosis, current researches and hopes of a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. History Around the turn of the century, two kinds of dementia were defined by Emil Kraepin: senile and presenile. The presenile form was described more in detail by Alois Alzheimer as a progressive deterioration...
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