Question;
Students are to select one of the following organic brain syndromes for your paper:
- AIDS or HIV Dementia
- Alzheimer’s Disease
- Huntington’s Chorea
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Parkinson’s Disease
All papers must address the etiology, symptoms, course, and prognosis of the syndrome.
Students are to describe treatment options, including medication and any alternative treatments that are under current investigation (e.g., cognitive remediation for Alzheimer’s disease), how the syndrome affects neurochemistry, the regions of the brain most impacted by the syndrome, and the associated psychological symptoms. If psychiatric medications are advised, discuss any possible drug interactions and describe, if any, symptoms of the organic brain syndrome that may mimic psychological symptoms
Papers must NOT be a reproduction of a Wikipedia article. Students must review journal articles and scientific research for their mid-term paper. Papers must be a minimum of 4 typed pages, double-spaced, 12-point font, with 1-inch margins. Maximum length of paper is 7 pages.
Answer;
Introduction
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive turmoil of the central nervous system that affects the movement of a patient. This disease belongs to a cluster of conditions called motor classification disorders, which occur as a result of the disorder in nerve cells of the brain that result in insufficient production of dopamine. The disease affects the mid part of the brain. According to scientific research, the disease can be inherited genetically. The disease has four basic characteristics, which includes tremor, rigidity of the muscles, slow movement, and instability of the posture. The disease mainly affects elderly people at the age of 60 years and above (Nordqvist, 2014).
The cause of Parkinson’s disease
The disease occurs because of the progressive deficit of nerve cells in substantia nigra, which leads to the reduction of dopamine that facilitates communication between the substantia nigra and corpus striatum. The shortage of dopamine in the brain hinders the movement of the patient. The process of depletion is gradual such that the effects cannot be experienced at the initial stage of nerve cells depletion or infection. The cause of the disorder is either genetic or environmental (Glass, 2012).
According to the research, genetic composition of the human being progressively mutates hence changing the composition of brain cells thus increases the development of Parkinson’s disease. The inheritance of genetic composition from parents to the child during reproduction rarely occurs in the human beings. On the other hand, the environmental factor increases the chances of infections. The research indicates that, usage of pesticide and herbicides in agricultural; activities; traffic and industrial emissions may increase the chances of infections. In addition, age increases the chances of contracting the disease since it occurs at a gradual rate and mainly affect the aged people ( Nordqvist, 2014)
Signs of Parkinson’s disease
According to Parkinson’s Disease Foundation Inc. (2015), the analysis of disease depends on the presence of gradual impairment of one side of the body, and later the symptoms spread to the entire body. The main symptoms include shaking of the hands, upper limbs, legs, jaws, and face; inflexibility of the arms, legs, and trunk; slow movement, and poor equilibrium and harmonization of body parts. Additionally, the patient may experience depression, sleeping, difficulty when swallowing foods or while speaking. Furthermore, the disease may cause sexual dysfunction, loss of smell, troubles while urinating, excessive sweating and dementia.
The successive stages of Parkinson’s disease
According to National Cancer Institute (2014), the disease has three main stages, which includes the early stage, moderate stage, and advanced stage. In the early stage of the disease, symptoms are observed on one side of the body that are gentle, tremor on one appendage, slow movement, and facial expressions sign in the a patient. In the moderate stage, locomotion becomes slower, symptoms occur on both sides of the body, coordination of the body becomes more strenuous, and minimal disability is experienced. Additionally, the last stage is accompanied by the rigidity of the muscle, pronounced tremor, minimal or complete retardation in locomotion, and the invalidation of the patient. At this stage, the patient requires maximum nursing care at all time (U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2015).
The predictability trend of Parkinson’s disease
According to National Institutes of Health (2014), the disease is progressive “a disease that perseveres over a long period”, indicating the symptom becomes critical over time. The symptoms also differ from one patient to the other, where in some cases, the patient may be completely be disabled while the other may experience minor movement disturbances. Additionally, tremor may be the main symptom to some patients while the other it may be a slight symptom. Also the symptoms may be more pronounced to some patients while, to the others the symptoms are mild. Hence, the disease is unpredictable where concentration of the symptoms varies from one individual to the other.
Current investigation in treatment options and medications
According to the current research, the disease has no cure, since there is no curative measure that can reduce or reverse this condition in the brain. Scientists have developed various treatments that assist the symptoms and recover the eminence of patient life. Some of the factors that affect the treatment of the individual include age, the standard of living, and marital status. These conditions change the type of medications and treatment depending on the life style of an individual. Levodopa, Carbidopa, and dopamine agonists are the most common types of treatment. Carbidopa hinders the alteration of levodopa into dopamine until it reaches the brain, where the nerve cells absorb it to produce dopamine that replenishes the brains deteriorating supply (Müller, 2012).
Additionally, in the control of tremor and rigidity anticholinergics are administered to the patient. Bromocriptine, pramipexole, and ropinirole imitate the role of dopamine in the brain thus they act as substitutes. Amanadite, an antiviral cure also reduces the rate of the symptom infection. Furthermore, surgery operation can be done to the patients who fail to respond to the drugs. The ailment is controlled by a therapy whereby an electrode implantation in the brain is conducted, and connected to a small electrical device called a throb generator, which is coordinated superficially. This therapy decreases the involuntarily movement which result from the use of levodopa and facilitates in alleviating fluctuation of symptoms and minimizes tremors, slowness of movement, and gait problems (Müller, 2012).
The side effects of Parkinson’s disease medication in neurochemistry
In the treatment of Parkinson disease, the activities of L-aromatic amino acid decarboxylase, tyrosine hydroxylase, monoamine oxidase and catechol-O-methyl transferees from lenodopa were examined. In addition the tissue levels of dopa, 3-O-methyldopa, dopamine and homovanillic acid were determined. In the non-dopa-treated Parkinsonian patients, the greatest decrease was detected for striatal DA and dopa D, with homovanillic acid and tyrosine hydroxylase levels showing a lesser change. The activities of monoamine oxidase and catechol-O-methyl transferees in the striatal nuclei were not different from the controls ( Lloyd, Davidson, & Hornykiewicz, 1975).
The part of brain mostly affected by Parkinson’s disease
The disease mostly affects the substantia nigra part of the brain by hindering its activities in neuro-transmission of dopamine. This affects the control of muscles and flexibility of the body (Nair, & Peate, 2015, p.35).
The effects of psychological behavior of the patient suffering with Parkinson’s disease
The mental symptoms associated with the disease are mainly depression and hallucination due to chemical imbalance in the body of the patient. The patient treated with dopamine agonist could also experience desire management disorder “punding, gambling, compulsive eating, and frenzied sexuality”. The treatment also causes sleeping sickness, daydreaming, and orthostatic hypotension is some of the effect of Parkinson’s disease in the patient. Additionally, the patient also feels agitated, deluded and may experience paranoid behavior. (Müller, 2012).
Psychological disturbances medications for Parkinson’s disease
In the treatment of depression psychiatrist therapy are used as well as medication. Most of the patients do well when they receive both treatments. Some anti depressant medication also are administered to the patients. Medications such as Zyprexa, Seroquel, and Clozaril are used to control hallucination in the patient without accelerating the rate of the disease symptoms.
Did you know that effective analysis of concepts requires professionalism in handling academic research Papers? Do no compromise on your grade choose professional Research writers at elitetutorslab.com