When to Seek Medical Care

Your doctor should evaluate you, specifically if you are older than 55 years, if you feel you are beginning to experience symptoms of Parkinson disease.

• Because PD is a progressive disease, you will continue to experience new and disturbing symptoms.
  
  
  • These symptoms can sometimes be hard to distinguish from side effects of medications, which can be numerous in someone with PD.
    
    
  • Thus, any change in your baseline condition should prompt an evaluation to rule out other medical conditions or medication side effects.

Although the emergency department is not the setting for deciding whether you have Parkinson disease, visits may be needed to rule out or treat other medical conditions.

Specific complications associated with PD may need an emergency department visit.

• At times, new or changing symptoms may mimic other diseases and cause you or your family anxiety. (For instance, you may have changes in your ability to think or be unable to move a certain body part that is worse than before, mimicking signs of a stroke.)
  
  
• With advancing PD, you become more likely to fall because of increasing problems with walking.
  
  
• Many people with PD may also develop osteoporosis (loss of calcium in bone), which in combination with walking problems of PD can make you more likely to have pelvic, hip, and other types of fractures.
  
  
• The involuntary nervous system problems of PD may cause you to have severe urinary retention (inability to urinate), constipation, or fecal impaction requiring medical intervention.
  
  
• The movement disorder may also affect the swallowing mechanism and esophagus causing you to choke or have food become impacted within the esophagus.
  
  
• Another associated complication is aspiration (inhalation of food) of either liquids or solids, which makes you more likely to have pneumonia and possibly can cause you to choke.
  
  
• The medications used to treat PD are not without complications either. For instance, low blood pressure may result and contribute to the sense of imbalance or increase the risk of falls or other trauma.
  
  
• In addition, people with PD can become immobilized by the disease, which can lead to painful muscle contractions. The muscles can become locked in spasm preventing you from moving the extremity. If a person with Parkinson disease is unable to communicate effectively, this may cause a great deal of anxiety. Certain medications and physical therapy may help alleviate this problem.

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