Parkinson Disease Dementia Glossary of Terms

1. Parkinson's Disease Slideshow Pictures
2. Dementia Slideshow Pictures
3. Take the Parkinson's Quiz

Absorption: Uptake. For example, intestinal absorption is the uptake of food (or other sub...

Acetylcholine: A neurotransmitter released by nerves that is essential for communication b...

Agonist: A substance that acts like another substance and therefore stimulates an action. ...

Alpha-synuclein: One in a family of structurally related proteins that are prominently exp...

Alzheimer disease: See: Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease: A progressive degenerative disease of the brain that leads to dementi...

Anticholinergic: Opposing the actions of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Anticholinerg...

Antidepressant: Anything, and especially a drug, used to prevent or treat depression.

Anxiety: A feeling of apprehension and fear, characterized by physical symptoms such as pa...

Arms: An appendage in anatomy and in clinical trials. See: Arm.

Atypical: Unusual, or not fitting a single diagnostic
category.

Autopsy: A postmortem examination. Also known as necropsy.

Brain: The portion of the central nervous system that is located within the skull. It func...

Cardiovascular: Relating to the circulatory system, which comprises the heart and blood ve...

Cardiovascular disease: Disease affecting the heart or blood vessels.

Cell: The basic structural and functional unit of any living thing. Each cell is a small c...

Cognition: The process of knowing. Cognition includes both awareness and judgment.

Cognitive: Having to do with thought, judgment, or knowledge.

Contrast: Short for "contrast media." Contrast media are X-ray dyes used to provide contra...

CT scan: Computerized tomography scan. Pictures of structures within the body created by a...

Cure: 1. To heal, to make well, to restore to good health. 2. A time withou...

Dementia: Significant loss of intellectual abilities, such as memory capacity, that is sev...

Depression: An illness that involves the body, mood, and thoughts and that affects the way...

Diagnosis: 1 The nature of a disease; the identification of an illness. 2 A ...

Dopamine: An important neurotransmitter (messenger) in the brain.

Dysfunction: Difficult function or abnormal function.

Fatigue: A condition characterized by a lessened capacity for work and reduced efficiency ...

Gene: The basic biological unit of heredity. A segment of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) need...

Genes: The basic biological units of heredity. Segments of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) nee...

Genetic: Having to do with genes and genetic
information.

Indicate: In medicine, to make a treatment or procedure advisable because of a particular ...

Insomnia: The perception or complaint of inadequate or poor-quality sleep due to a number ...

Jaw: The movable junction of the bones below the mouth (the mandible) and the bone just ab...

Lethargy: Abnormal drowsiness, stupor.

Long-term memory: A system for permanently storing, managing, and retrieving information f...

Manic: In a state of mania.

Memory: 1. The ability to recover information about past events or knowledge. ...

Metabolism: The whole range of biochemical processes that occur within a living organism. ...

Mild cognitive impairment: Abbreviated MCI. A brain disorder in which thinking abilities a...

Mitochondrial: Referring to mitochondria.

Motor: Something that produces or refers to motion. For example, a motor neuron is a nerve...

MRI: Magnetic resonance imaging.

Muscle: Muscle is the tissue of the body which primarily functions as a source of power. T...

Neurotransmitter: A chemical that is released from a nerve cell which thereby transmits an...

Onset: In medicine, the first appearance of the signs or symptoms of an illness as, for ex...

Parkinson's disease: A slowly progressive neurologic disease that is characterized by a fi...

Parkinsonism: 1. Parkinson disease.
2. A syndrome similar to Parkinso...

Physical therapy: A branch of rehabilitative health that uses specially designed exercises...

Posture: The carriage of the body as a whole, the attitude of the body, or the position of...

Prognosis: The forecast of the probable outcome or course of a disease; the patient's chan...

Protein: One of the three nutrients used as energy sources (calories) by the body. Protein...

Psychiatrist: A physician who specializes in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of m...

Psychosis: In the general sense, a mental illness that markedly interferes with a person'...

Receptor: 1. In cell biology, a structure on the surface of a cell (or inside a cel...

Reuptake: The reabsorption of a secreted substance by the cell that originally produced an...

Scan: As a noun, the data or image obtained from the examination of organs or regions of...

Senility: 1. Originally, old age. 2. The physical decline associated with o...

Serotonin: A neurotransmitter that is involved in the transmission of nerve impulses. Sero...

Sleep: The body's rest cycle.

SNCA: The gene for alpha-synuclein.

Stress: In a medical or biological context stress is a physical, mental, or emotional fact...

Surgery: The branch of medicine that employs operations in the treatment of disease or inj...

Symptom: Any subjective evidence of disease. In contrast, a sign is objective. Blood comin...

Tension: 1) The pressure within a vessel, such as blood pressure: the pressure within t...

Therapy: The treatment of disease. Therapy is synonymous with treatment.

Tremor: An abnormal, repetitive shaking movement of the body. Tremors have many causes and...

Vascular: Relating to blood vessels. For example, the vascular system in the body includes...

Viruses: Small living particles that can infect cells and change how the cells function. I...