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>
>the complete text of the article by
>O'Brien and Watt.
>DEPRESSION IN PARKINSON'S DISEASE
>Christopher F. O'Brien, MD, Director, Movement Disorders
>Center, Colorado Neurological Institute, Director, APDA
>Information and Referral Center, Englewood, CO.
I couldn't resist to comment on this issue, because the
strange coincidence that Dr. O'Brien is my physician... at 2,0O0
miles between us. (I live in Mexico) And despite of that fact,
which would be a major obstacle according with the conventional
wisdom, and that I suffer some of the most troublesome symptoms
of PD, he can control and even keep me in a relative good shape.
This is due mostly to the circumstance that, albeit he is quite
young, he still possess the rare characteristic of the great
doctors of the past: personal commitment, dedication and knows
everything there is to know about the disease. How important is
to have a working relationship with your neurologist! This
reality may be paramount in your quality of life, already
brutally diminished.
In my case depression was sometimes much more disabling than
PD, and I believe that the early onset of my parkinsonism (I was
40 when diagnosed) was due to a life deeply immerse in stress,
and to a set of events that trigger the PD marker in the
chromosome where it must be. For about five yeaRS I was on a low
dose of amitriptyline, but this medicine has a side effect that
affected me quite a bit: urological complications. The article is
very useful because points out a very common problem,and quite
difficult to treat due to lack of knowledge of most of the
neurologists of the interactions of the anti-depressants with the
PD medicines, and even less knowledge of the psychological
counselor of the effects of PD drugs, especially levidopa.
>Fatigue, sleep disruption, agitation, memory difficulties and
other symptoms may occur with too little or too much medication.
However difficult the problem is, (and I believe that still there
is too little research on this angle) Dr. O'Brien points that
there are resources to help with the problem. and the article
covers them quite adequately.
Sergio Guzik
([log in to unmask])
Mexico.
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