Sunday, February 2, 2014

Parkinson's Disease Medications

Of the many challenges that come with living with Parkinson's, oddly enough the aspect that angers me the most is that I have a pill case. Seriously?!?  A pill case!
Google Glass and a Pill Case? Incongruous!

I have always associated this item with being in a nursing home.  The only thing that annoys me on the same level is when my father asks, "how is your drug cocktail working out?" I expected pills and cocktails in my life but I thought it would come as the lead singer of an indy rock band---not as a 33 year old PD patient.

This is going to be my life for the foreseeable future so I do need to move on. As you may already know, each PD patient has an individualized progression of the disease which also means that symptoms vary wildly. The medications are fairly capable of treating the disease for a while, then the disease progresses and you adjust the medication and things get better, then the disease changes and you adjust the medication.....you get the point. At a certain stage in time, you may exhaust all avenues of treatment but my hope is through good research and drug development, that will soon not be the case.

A more disturbing challenge is each drug may have some unique side effects associated with it.  So, for example, when I was first diagnosed by my neurologist (the dashing Miodrag Velickovic), we had the following conversation:

Dr. Miodrag Velickovic
Dr. V: in some patients on dopamine agonists, they experience compulsion to gamble and have sex.

Bryan: I think I may have been on an agonist in college as those were my favorite hobbies.

All kidding aside, it is important to be cognizant of the drugs that you are taking.  Not just how they interact together but also what are the long-term side effects of the medication. Individuals with YOPD are, presumably, going to be on these meds for a long sample size and the side effects are real.

Below is a great primer to PD meds and what they do (and don't do). Required reading for all patients and their loved ones.



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