ABSTRACT
Introduction Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the commonest neurodegenerative diseases and amongst the commonest causes of disability in the elderly.
PD is characterised by a triad of motor symptoms, namely bradykinesia, rigidity, resting tremor. Pathologically, it is characterised by a progressive loss of the dopaminergic neurones in the substantia nigra that project into the striatum, resulting in a state of dopamine deficiency in the caudate and putamen. Lack of dopamine is the cause of the main motor symptoms of the disease, which classically involve tremor, rigidity and bradykinesia. It is widely accepted that the pathological process extends beyond the basal ganglia and affects other CNS neuronal populations that utilize other neurotransmitters such as serotonin (raphe nuclei), norepinephrine (locus ceruleus) and acetylcholine (pedunculopontine nucleus). The involvement of these non-dopaminergic pathways is believed to account for the non-motor symptoms of PD, as well as for symptoms that do not respond to dopaminergic medication. These symptoms
About 1% of the population over the age of 65 is affected by Parkinson’s disease. This ratio rises to 2% in the population over 80 years of age.1
