What are the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease?

  Parkinson’s disease is the third largest killer after stroke and Alzheimer’s disease, which is a serious threat to the health of the elderly. However, there is a serious lack of awareness of the disease, and statistics show that more than 50% of Parkinson’s disease patients in China fail to seek timely medical treatment, resulting in aggravation of the disease, which seriously affects the outcome.    First, how to identify Parkinson’s disease? What are the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease?  1, slow movement. The performance of the movement becomes slower, walking can not walk fast, can not keep up with peers. Due to the slow facial movements, facial expressions appear dull, and smiles are not natural when happy. The upper limb of the affected side does not swing when walking, as if the arm is tied up.  2. Resting tremor. Tremor occurs when the limb is relaxed and quiet, and decreases or disappears during activity. The tremor is characterized by rhythmic tremor of large amplitude, starting with one hand and gradually extending to other limbs. The tremor increases during anger and decreases during emotional stability, and it may cease completely during sleep. Strong voluntary efforts can temporarily suppress the tremor, but only for a short period of time, and there is a tendency to worsen afterwards.  3. Muscle tonicity. The tension of the muscles is increased, and the patient often feels that the muscles are stiff, and the muscles cannot be relaxed as if they were tied up. There is obvious resistance when pulling the patient’s limb and it appears stiff. The head often hangs in mid-air for several minutes when lying down, as if there is a pillow under the head; when the patient’s limb is lifted and then relaxed, the patient often maintains the limb in the air for several minutes and it is difficult to put it down.  4. Postural balance disorder. Due to the muscle ankylosis, the patient has a special posture, with the head tilted forward, the trunk bent down, the elbow joint of the upper limb flexed, and the hip and knee joints of the lower limb slightly flexed; due to the imbalance of muscle tone on both sides of the trunk, the patient may have trunk scoliosis. Due to the imbalance of muscle tone on both sides of the trunk, the patient may have scoliosis. Patients with trunk stiffness and postural balance disorders often fall into chairs when trying to sit down.  Parkinson’s disease is not yet curable, with the above symptoms should go to the doctor as soon as possible, early diagnosis and early treatment, timely and reasonable treatment can significantly improve the patient’s ability to work and quality of life.  Second, what are the considerations in the drug treatment of Parkinson’s disease?  The current treatment goal of Parkinson’s disease is still mainly to improve symptoms and quality of life. Beijing Hospital established the Parkinson’s Disease and Extrapyramidal Disease Treatment Center in 1995, and has undertaken or participated in a number of national and provincial level projects. It has taken the lead in clinical registration trials of new drugs such as xinin controlled-release tablets, ropinirole and resagiline, hosted a multicenter clinical study of selagiline, and participated in clinical registration trials of entacapone, pramipexole, ropinirole extended-release tablets, and other drugs.  Based on our previous clinical experience, we believe that the principle of drug therapy for Parkinson’s disease should start with a small dose and gradually increase to the required dose. Since each patient’s response to drugs is different, we emphasize that the dose of Parkinson’s disease treatment should be individualized, and by slowly increasing the dose to find the amount of drugs that can just basically control the symptoms, we can achieve the goal of improving the quality of life without overdosing.  Currently, drug therapy is still the most mature and most used treatment for Parkinson’s disease, and the most commonly used drug is levodopa. Timely and rational levodopa treatment can reduce the risk of falls and fractures and reduce the occurrence of long-term complications. It is important to note that anti-Parkinson’s disease drugs such as levodopa should not be stopped abruptly. Abrupt discontinuation may lead to severe withdrawal malignant syndrome, causing symptoms such as hyperthermia and coma, and in severe cases, fatal. Therefore, discontinuation of the drug needs to be gradually reduced and slowly stopped under the guidance of a doctor.  Third, in addition to drug treatment for motor symptoms, what other considerations are there?  It is important to pay attention to the impact of non-motor symptoms on the quality of life of patients with Parkinson’s disease. Impaired mobility in patients with Parkinson’s disease has received attention from both doctors and patients. However, non-motor symptoms are often overlooked. A study of non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease conducted by the Parkinson’s Disease and Extrapyramidal Disease Clinic of Beijing Hospital revealed that the vast majority of Parkinson’s disease patients have non-motor symptoms. On average, each patient had 12 non-motor symptoms. Examples include decreased sense of smell, constipation, depressed mood, anxiety and irritability, hallucinations, sleep disturbances, cognitive impairment, difficulty urinating, and pain. These non-motor symptoms often make patients feel unhappy or distressed, which seriously affects their quality of life.  However, non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease are often ignored and patients rarely complain of them voluntarily, resulting in these non-motor symptoms often failing to receive reasonable and effective treatment. In the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, we should not only focus on motor symptoms, but also treat non-motor symptoms such as depression and cognitive impairment; we should not only carry out medication, but also pay attention to mental health and combine with rehabilitation exercises and other measures, in order to make patients obtain the best results.