Hallucinations and delusions are also the other problems which may are commonly caused by medications that the patient is taking and /or dementia. It is expected that 40% to 50% of people with Parkinson’s suffer from this abnormal activity. Hallucination is described as “abnormal sensory experiences in which the individual sees, hears, smells, feels, or tastes something that is not actually present in the environment” ( John Hopkins Medicine 2004). This means that they may see people or animals that are not actually there or that they may think that a stick is a snake.
On the other hand, Delusion is described as “fixed, false beliefs that a person maintains even despite evidence to the contrary” (John Hopkins Medicine 2004). This problem also occurs in the more advanced stage of the disease. Deluded people are paranoid, they may think that certain situation is occurring even when it is clear that it is not so. For example, they may suspect that their husband is having an affair. Although hallucinations may be a cause of alarm, the patient may be aware of it so that he may find the experience amusing.
Unfortunately, however, some of them do hide their hallucinations for fear of being thought of as “crazy” which of course just worsens their suffering. Moreover, the attending physician will not be able to make necessary adjustments in medications (John Hopkins Medicine 2004). People with Parkinson’s are also attacked with the problem of anxiety. This of course is an expected occurrence as the person may feel anxious that he has the disease and feels dismayed at his impairments. The person may feel anxious if he is in public places or crowded areas.
However, the disease itself can cause panic disorders due to its neurodegenerative nature. This has been proven when it was found out that individuals suffer from this disorder right after they acquired the disease (John Hopkins 2004). Sleeping problems are very common for people with Parkinson’s. They frequently suffer from insomnia. They may have a hard time falling asleep due to their tremors. People who suffer from severe tremors may find that their trembling greatly increases when they lie down in bed.
Moreover, due to their depression and anxious feelings, the person may also find it hard to fall asleep just like any normal person do when they are in that condition. To cure the problem of sleeplessness the person, therefore, is required to remove from his daily diet any beverages that contain caffeine and it is recommended that he takes a regular exercise ( John Hopkins 2004). Aside from facing the problem of difficulty in falling sleeping, the patient may also find a hard time staying asleep.
This is largely due to involuntary movements (caused by the motor impairment or malfunction) which of course awaken the patient. Also, if the patient wakes up early, it will be an indication that he is suffering from depression. To cure this problem, the patient takes sedatives. On the other hand, the patient may also experience sleepiness in daytime which may be cause by his poor sleep that night or due to the medicine intake ( John Hopkins 2004). In some rare cases, there are those who exhibit an unusual change in behavior like having the interest to gamble, develop hypersexuality or have some impulsive tendencies.
Since these are not highly publicized symptoms, often patients are forced to hide these problems (John Hopkins 2004). There are other daily problems like reduced sensory skills such as reduced ability to smell fatigue, loss of energy (“Parkinson’s” 2008). Parkinson’s disease may not take immediately a person’s life it is still a serious problem because as a progressive disorder, the symptoms that the patients’ suffers in their daily life worsen in time.
As a degeneration of specific brain cells, Parkinson’s disease causes motor skills and autonomic dysfunction, cognitive impairment as well as psychiatric, sleep and other behavioral disturbances. These negative effects, of course, disrupt the normal daily living of the patient.
List of Medical terms
1. Anxiety A feeling of apprehension that something bad (e. g. illness) is bound to happen (Medline 2003). Alzheimer’s disease