Today we just heard from a friend who has been living with Parkinson's disease for a few years. Recently he developed some new symptoms that made his neurologist wonder about his diagnosis. The physician wondered if he may be suffering from Ataxia, in addition to Parkinson's disease. He also wondered if he may be suffering from multiple system atrophy, or MSA, rather that Parkinson's disease.
There are a number of diseases or conditions that share symptoms with Parkinson's disease. They are often called 'Parkinsonisms' or 'Parkinson's plus syndromes'. MSA is one of those. Sometimes people with MSA are mistakenly diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. As the condition progresses, however, it becomes apparent the person has MSA. MSA is quite simply when many parts of your brain start to shut down and diminish. This has far-reaching affects on your body's nervous system. Many things your brain takes care of automatically like breathing and digesting, can shut down with MSA. There are a few ways that MSA differs from Parkinson's disease. Two of the key differences include:
- MSA does not respond well to dopamine or many other treatments.
- MSA usually progresses quickly and disables its patients in a much shorter time period than Parkinson's.
If you are interested in reading more about Parkinsonisms, there are some good links from this blog, "It's Not Parkinson's , It's a Parkinsonism" we posted a few months ago.
