Parkinson's Disease: Non-Motor and Motor Symptoms in Diagnosis

Parkinson's Disease(PD)affects 1 million people in the United States and this number will increase with the aging population. Parkinson's Disease is a neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system that occurs as a result of a loss of dopamine producing cells in the brain. The cardinal features of Parkinson's Disease are Slowness of movement (bradykinesia), Rigidity anbd Tremor. However the accuracy of diagnosis is 70% with general neurologist and 90% with Movement Disorder Neurologists.neurologist that has done a formal fellowship in movement disorders, since there are many neurologist that call themselves movement disorder neurologist based on experience but not formal training. We have come to find out that experience does not make up for formal traning. Non-Motor Symptoms begin 3-15 years before motor symptoms and patients usually have 50-70% loss of the cells that produce dopamine.