{"id":104,"date":"2025-10-30T13:21:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T20:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nursing.wsu.edu\/honors-program\/?page_id=104"},"modified":"2025-10-30T13:28:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T20:28:22","slug":"from-diagnosis-to-management-uncovering-signs-of-parkinsons-disease-refining-symptom-managment","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nursing.wsu.edu\/honors-program\/honors-projects\/cougs-for-parkinsons\/research-topics\/from-diagnosis-to-management-uncovering-signs-of-parkinsons-disease-refining-symptom-managment\/","title":{"rendered":"From Diagnosis to Management: Uncovering Signs of Parkinson’s Disease & Refining Symptom Management"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Research Proposal by Cadence Mclin<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parkinson\u2019s Disease is known for the four cardinal signs being tremors, bradykinesia, rigidity, & postural instability. The disease is defined as the death of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra area of the brain, which causes an overall decrease in dopamine (Armstrong & Okun, 2020). Many Parkinson\u2019s patients, specifically newly diagnosed, do not have an in-depth understanding of Parkinson\u2019s symptoms, physical manifestations, and why treatment is ever-changing. While Parkinson\u2019s is commonly seen in the United States, treatment and symptom management can differ from patient to patient. Armstrong & Okun established how each neurotransmitter is affected by specific drugs used in treatment and management. For example, since the brain lacks Dopamine, the Levodopa\/Carbidopa medication is often used as a dopamine agonist; agonists mimic the body\u2019s natural response. Levodopa\/Carbidopa aids in the motor impairment and function seen in Parkinson\u2019s patients, i.e., tremors and muscle rigidity (Armstrong & Okun, 2020). Uncovering the signs and symptoms of Parkinson\u2019s and understanding symptom management and treatment is crucial for patient success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parkinson\u2019s is known to be a highly complicated and diverse disease because each person experiences it differently. For example, each person can have different psychosocial symptoms such as dementia, hallucinations, and most commonly depression. Depression is an unfortunate adverse effect to Parkinson\u2019s because not only is this detrimental on the patient, it is overwhelming for the caregivers, family, and friends of the patient. Identifying this altered mental status as soon as it develops is important to help begin to manage it appropriately. Allowing depression to become untreated will likely lead to a dangerous situation for the patient to be in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sex and age of the individual will drastically change the treatment course and outcomes as well. Men twice are more likely to develop Parkinson\u2019s, however women can develop it as well (Cerri, et.al., 2019). Women with Parkinson\u2019s have their own unique challenges and experiences with symptom management because often women\u2019s needs are more overlooked than men’s because of the cultural upbringing women have faced for hundreds of years. They are traditionally the \u201ccaretaker\u201d of the home and tending to their sick husbands, so when women are sick, they are less likely to have the same level of care as a male due to the natural tendency (Cerri, et.al., 2019). The characteristics of the two sexes will show different progressions and developments of motor symptoms in men vs women. Women often experience later symptom development. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Research Proposal by Cadence Mclin Parkinson\u2019s Disease is known for the four cardinal signs being tremors, bradykinesia, rigidity, & postural instability. The disease is defined as the death of dopaminergic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35161,"featured_media":0,"parent":113,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"wsuwp_university_location":[],"wsuwp_university_org":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nursing.wsu.edu\/honors-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/104"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nursing.wsu.edu\/honors-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nursing.wsu.edu\/honors-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nursing.wsu.edu\/honors-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nursing.wsu.edu\/honors-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nursing.wsu.edu\/honors-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108,"href":"https:\/\/nursing.wsu.edu\/honors-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/104\/revisions\/108"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nursing.wsu.edu\/honors-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nursing.wsu.edu\/honors-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nursing.wsu.edu\/honors-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nursing.wsu.edu\/honors-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nursing.wsu.edu\/honors-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=104"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nursing.wsu.edu\/honors-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}