Parkinson’s Disease – Scion Neurostim

Overview and Prevalence

Nearly 90,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with Parkinson's disease each year.

More than 10 million people worldwide are living with Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson’s disease is the fastest growing neurodegenerative disease.

Men are 1.5 times more likely to have Parkinson’s disease than women.

Reference: https://www.parkinson.org/understanding-parkinsons/statistics

More than one million people in the United States, and ten million people worldwide, have Parkinson’s disease. In Parkinson’s disease, dopamine producing neurons in the brain die, and the resulting loss of dopamine signaling leads to problems with movement such as slowness, tremor, stiffness and balance. These movement-related symptoms, usually called motor symptoms, are typically what lead to the initial diagnoses. However, most people with Parkinson’s experience a variety of other symptoms not related to movement, known as the non-motor symptoms that result from the degeneration of dopaminergic and other neurotransmitter systems in the brain.

Parkinson’s disease is progressive, meaning that symptoms tend to get worse over time. The limitations of existing therapies lead to the persistence of symptoms that often interfere with people’s ability to engage in daily activities such as working, managing the home, engaging in hobbies, socializing, and exercising.

Non-Motor Symptoms

Non-motor (non-movement) symptoms are sometimes called the “invisible” symptoms of Parkinson’s because they often aren’t easily seen from the outside. Similar to an iceberg which floats on the ocean with only a small percentage of its mass appearing above the water, only a small percentage of symptoms in Parkinson’s disease, specifically the motor symptoms, are evident to outsiders.

Many more symptoms (i.e., the non-motor symptoms) are difficult for outsiders to detect. Even people with Parkinson’s may attribute non-motor symptoms to aging. But they are as much a part of the condition as the motor symptoms.

Common Parkinson’s non-motor symptoms can include:

Sleep issues: difficulty falling and staying asleep, restless legs or disordered sleep, like acting out dreams or experiencing vivid nightmares

Sexual issues: erectile dysfunction in men or loss of libido in women

Mood issues: anxiety (uncontrollable worry/nervousness for no clear reason), depression (sadness, loss of energy) or apathy (loss of interest in relationships or lack of motivation to start new activities)

Fatigue or daytime sleepiness: physical or mental tiredness or excessive daytime sleepiness

Thinking or memory issues: struggling to focus on everyday tasks, forgetting names, not recalling something that recently happened or difficulty solving problems

Hallucinations or visual disturbances: seeing things that aren’t there or having false and often threatening beliefs

Impulse control and related disorders: such as increased gambling, buying, eating or sexual behaviors; routinely taking more anti-parkinsonian medications than prescribed

Gastrointestinal issues: constipation, drooling or excess salivation and difficulty swallowing

Feeling lightheaded or dizzy upon standing

Urinary incontinence or other issues: needing to use the restroom urgently or frequently

Pain: muscle or bone pain, shooting pain, central pain (constant, dull, aching pain that affects most of the body), pain caused by involuntary movements, cramping

Non-motor symptoms are often present early in the disease with some non-motor symptoms emerging prior to the initial diagnosis of Parkinson’s. Like the motor symptoms, the frequency and severity of Parkinson’s non-motor symptoms tend to get worse over time. Most people with Parkinson’s experience several non-motor symptoms, impacting the quality of life for both people with Parkinson’s and their caregivers (Hermanonowicz et al. 2019).

Despite the high prevalence of nonmotor symptoms in Parkinson’s, many of these symptoms lack good therapeutic options. Most non-motor symptoms in Parkinson’s are not well-addressed by the gold-standard dopamine replacement therapies used to treat the motor symptoms of the disease. Several drug therapies are used clinically to treat specific non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s, however, only a few of these medications have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (or other regulatory agencies) to treat these conditions in Parkinson’s disease. More often, clinicians must rely on treatments that have been approved based on their safety and efficacy to treat the conditions in general populations but have not been tested specifically in populations with Parkinson’s. Notably, the treatments for non-motor symptoms typically address only one symptom. As a result, most people with Parkinson’s must take many medications to address their non-motor symptoms in addition to the standard of care treatments for Parkinson’s motor symptoms. This approach is not only burdensome for patients, but also increases the risk for drug-drug interactions. Additionally, the cost of the side-effects versus the benefits for symptom reduction for each of these medications must be carefully weighed.