Parkinson's Disease is a diagnosis, meaning that it is important to assess the patient in person and it is common for some patients to experience symptoms that might not be typical, especially younger patients when they first present these symptoms, it may not be the typical tremors, shuffles and movement, thus it is important to assess patients before making the diagnosis.
Question
Are tremors, getting stiff when emotional, and cramps symptoms of Parkinson's Disease?
Doctor's Answers 1
Similar Questions
Who is a good candidate for DBS (deep brain stimulation)?
Essentially the criteria we look out for are Parkinson's patients we feel will greatly benefit from this. We are looking for patients who maybe have mobile fluctuations, meaning they have this “on-off” phenomenon. We want to make sure we do not treat patients with dementia because they do not respond as well to DBS and we want to exclude patients who have severe depression. Again, patients with depression should not have surgery until their depression is stable. So we eliminate those patients who aren't suitable.
What advice would you give to patients who have just been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease?
I think the most important thing is having the right mindset, also about the social aspect and making use of non-medical tips and tricks like technology. I think thirdly I would say the medical perspective is always important to work with your medical team, especially one who specialises in movement disorders that is a subfield of neurology. You should work with people who really deal with this a lot because they are the best who can help you and you have to be open to all the different options.
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