Parkinson's disease is a neuro-degenerative disorder that is caused due to the degeneration of neurons in the brain.
This illness impairs motor movement and non motor symptoms.
Even though no permanent cure for this illness has been discovered, there are numerous medicines that are available today to take care of the symptoms.
The most common indications of Parkinson's disease include motor symptoms like tremors, stopped and shuffling gait, trouble in getting up from a chair, absence of facial expression and slowing down of daily routine activities.
The non-motor symptoms include reduced sense of smell, drooling, excessive sweating, problem in getting an erection, constipation, sleep disorders and foot cramps just to name a few of them.
The drugs that are used to treat the indications of this illness are Levodopa, Apomorphine, Bromocriptine, Cabergoline, Lisuride, Ropinirole and Pergolide.
As the disease becomes worse, it becomes more and more difficult for the patient to manage his symptoms with the use of medication.
Sometimes even the medication that the patient is being treated with does not have the desired effect.
Therefore he experiences involuntary movements of various parts of the body when the dopamine levels go up.
Basically diagnosis of this disease is based on the patient's previous medical history and the examination of his neurological system and observations that are made by using the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale.
Unfortunately the early indications of this disease are dismissed by others as the normal process of aging.
Generally it takes a doctor some time to observe and to really confirm that the person is in fact suffering from Parkinson's-disease.
Sometimes even the CT scans and the brain scans of people suffering from this ailment appear normal.
There are certain guidelines in the UK that say that the diagnosis and treatment of patients with Parkinson's disease must necessarily be carried out by neurologists or geriatricians who specialize in movement disorders.