Parkinsons Disease

Parkinsons Disease

Parkinson’s Disease Essay

Intro

Symptoms - gait disturbances
* akinesia
* bradykinesia

Interventions
* attention

Theory
* basal ganglia
* executive functioning

Many neurological conditions interfere with an individual’s ability to carry out activities of daily living (ADLs). Using one condition (Parkinson’s Disease) as an example, discuss how psychological theory and experimental data can contribute to an intervention designed to help someone engage in ADLs.
Intro
Parkinson’s disease has been found to affect as many as 1 in every 500 people, with around 127,000 people in the UK alone having received a diagnosis of this particular neurological condition, (Parkinson’s Disease Society, NDS).

While there is no cure for the disease itself, it has become of paramount importance to psychologists and neurologists to find ways to control and treat the symptoms of the disease, and to allow for an adequate quality of life beyond it’s onset.

Due to its idiosyncratic nature, the course of the disease and the symptoms that accompany it vary across individuals, however, those with the condition suffer from four cardinal problems effecting their mobility; tremor, bradykinesia, postural instability, and rigidity, (Jankovic, 2007). These range of motor problems lead to gait disturbance and threaten the individual’s ability to perform ADLs, thus having an effect on their independence. Gait disturbance is defined as abnormal walking and includes problems such as hesitation with taking the first step to start walking, increased shuffling, slowness and freezing. With the average age of diagnosis of Parkinson’s being around 50 to 60 years old and the

Theory/data to guide intervention

Proposed intervention – how can we help an individual with this neurological disability

Basal ganglia – peform well learnt and semi-automatic motor skills and movement sequences by planning, preparing intiriaing etc sequencing of movements...

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