Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases and is classified as a movement disorder with the presence of the motor symptoms bradykinesia, tremor and rigidity. The literature on the management of motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease focuses largely on medical treatment and outlines the great advances that drug therapy has seen over the past 40 years. There are beneficial outcomes of medicinal therapy on the treatment of motor symptoms; however, extensive research also finds that there is a dampening effect as well as potential motor and non-motor side effects. While pharmacological research continues the search for the ideal medical treatment model, awareness of psychosocial symptoms and the potential burden on healthcare providers has also attracted much attention in recent decades. The growing interest in the psychosocial characteristics of the disease appears to arise from the evolution of scientific knowledge of the disease and the lack of a cure. In addition to the consequences of Parkinson's disease, nonmotor problems are sometimes unrelated to the common disease progression and dopamine deficiency. The clinical diagnosis of Parkinson's disease is often confounded by the psychosocial scope of the patient's daily functioning and the impact it has on patient care and treatment. This article summarizes the literature on personality disorder from a psychosocial perspective. The first chapter examines the intrinsic psychosocial symptoms of Parkinson's disease and how they may or may not be influenced by dopamine neurotransmitters. The second chapter examines the side effects of three medications commonly prescribed to treat Parkinson's disease. The last chapter focuses on the implications that the disease has on the personal well-being of the caregiver. Introduction: Parkinson's disease...... half of article...... cognitive, dementia, levodopa, MAO-B inhibitors, dopamine agonists + side/adverse effects, and caregiver/burden/distress. All searches were limited to the English language and to the years 2000 - 2010. I also referred to bibliography lists present in articles considered relevant to the research project. Some reviews were outside the bounds of the annual limit but were included because they broadened the scope of this document. Abstracts were reviewed and deemed relevant for inclusion in this literature search based on focus and relevance to the topics outlined in this document. My initial search yielded over 1000 results from the various literature databases for this article, of which 61 were included in this review. Those excluded were duplicate results found across databases or focused on an unrelated topic after abstract review.
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