This comprehensive reference provides a detailed overview of current concepts regarding the cause of Parkinson's disease-emphasizing the issues involved in the design, implementation, and analysis of epidemiological studies of parkinsonism.

Balance Dysfunction in Parkinson's Disease: Basic Mechanisms to Clinical Management presents the most updated information on a variety of topics. Sections help clinicians evaluate the types of balance control issues, dynamic balance dysfunction during turning, and the effects of medication, deep brain stimulation, and rehabilitation intervention on balance control. This book is the first to review the four main postural control systems and how they are affected, including balance during quiet stance, reactive postural adjustments to external perturbations, anticipatory postural adjustments in preparation for voluntary movements, and dynamic balance control during walking and turning. In addition, the book's authors summarize the effects of levodopa, deep brain stimulation, and rehabilitation intervention for each balance domain. This book is recommended for anyone interested in how and why balance control is affected by PD. - Provides the first comprehensive review of research to date on balance dysfunctions in Parkinson's disease - Discusses how to translate current neuroscience research into practice regarding neural control of balance - Provides evidence on the effects of current interventions on balance control

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) are known to suffer from motor symptoms of the disease, but they also experience non-motor symptoms (NMS) that are often present before diagnosis or that inevitably emerge with disease progression. The motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease have been extensively researched, and effective clinical tools for their assessment and treatment have been developed and are readily available. In contrast, researchers have only recently begun to focus on the NMS of Parkinson's Disease, which are poorly recognized and inadequately treated by clinicians. The NMS of PD have a significant impact on patient quality of life and mortality and include neuropsychiatric, sleep-related, autonomic, gastrointestinal, and sensory symptoms. While some NMS can be improved with currently available treatments, others may be more refractory and will require research into novel (non-dopaminergic) drug therapies for the future. Edited by members of the UK Parkinson's Disease Non-Motor Group (PD-NMG) and with contributions from international experts, this new edition summarizes the current understanding of NMS symptoms in Parkinson's disease and points the way towards future research.

These practice guidelines draw upon the widest relevant knowledge and evidence available to describe and inform contemporary best practice occupational therapy for people with Parkinson's disease. They include practical examples of interventions to allow occupational therapists to apply new treatments to their practice.

The brain is the most complex organ in our body. Indeed, it is perhaps the most complex structure we have ever encountered in nature. Both structurally and functionally, there are many peculiarities that differentiate the brain from all other organs. The brain is our connection to the world around us and by governing nervous system and higher function, any disturbance induces severe neurological and psychiatric disorders that can have a devastating effect on quality of life. Our understanding of the physiology and biochemistry of the brain has improved dramatically in the last two decades. In particular, the critical role of cations, including magnesium, has become evident, even if incompletely understood at a mechanistic level. The exact role and regulation of magnesium, in particular, remains elusive, largely because intracellular levels are so difficult to routinely quantify. Nonetheless, the importance of magnesium to normal central nervous system activity is self-evident given the complicated homeostatic mechanisms that maintain the concentration of this cation within strict limits essential for normal physiology and metabolism. There is also considerable accumulating evidence to suggest alterations to some brain functions in both normal and pathological conditions may be linked to alterations in local magnesium concentration. This book, containing chapters written by some of the foremost experts in the field of magnesium research, brings together the latest in experimental and clinical magnesium research as it relates to the central nervous system. It offers a complete and updated view of magnesiums involvement in central nervous system function and in so doing, brings together two main pillars of contemporary neuroscience research, namely providing an explanation for the molecular mechanisms involved in brain function, and emphasizing the connections between the molecular changes and behavior. It is the untiring efforts of those magnesium researchers who have dedicated their lives to unraveling the mysteries of magnesiums role in biological systems that has inspired the collation of this volume of work.