CHAPTER 15: ANTI-PARKINSON DRUGS

Question 1

adjunctive drugs

Answer 1

drugs that are aded as a second drug for combined therapy with a primary drug and may have additive or independent properties

Question 2

akinesia

Answer 2

classically defined as “without movement”. absence or poverty of movement that results in a mask like facial expression and impaired postural reflexes

Question 3

bradykinesia

Answer 3

slowness of movement; a classic symptom of parkinson’s disease

Question 4

chorea

Answer 4

a condition characterized by involuntary, purposeless, rapid motions such as flexing and extending the fingers, raising and lowering the shoulders, or grimacing

Question 5

dyskinesia

Answer 5

term for abnormal and distressing involuntary movements; inability to control movements, which often occurs as a side effect of levodopa therapy

Question 6

dystonia

Answer 6

impaired or distorted voluntary movement, often involving the head, neck or feet

Question 7

exogenous

Answer 7

a term describing any substance produced outside of the body that may be taken into the body (medication, food or environmental toxin)

Question 8

on-off phenomenon

Answer 8

a common experience of patients taking medication for Parkinson’s disease in which they experience periods of greater symptomatic control (“on” time) alternating with periods of lesser symptomatic control (“off” time)

Question 9

parkinson’s diease

Answer 9

a slowly progressive, degenerative neurologic disorder characterized by resting tremor, pill-rolling of the fingers, mask like facies, shuffling gait, forward flexion of the trunk, loss of postural reflexes and muscle rigidity and weakness

Question 10

postural instability

Answer 10

a decrease or change in motor and muscle movements that leads to unsteadiness and hesitation in movement and gait when the individual starts or stops walking, or causes leaning to the left or right when sitting; occurs in parkinson’s diease

Question 11

presynaptic

Answer 11

drugs that exert their anti-parkinson effects before the nerve synapse

Question 12

rigidity

Answer 12

resistance of the muscles to passive movement; leads to the “cogwheel” rigidity seen in parkinson’s disease

Question 13

TRAP

Answer 13

(tremor, rigidity, akinesia, postural instability) ; an acronym for symptoms for parkinson’s disease

Question 14

tremor

Answer 14

in parkinson’s disease, shakiness of the extremities seen mostly at rest

Question 15

wearing-off phenomenon

Answer 15

a gradual worsening of parkinsonian symptoms as a patient’s medications begin to lose their effectiveness, despite maximal dosing with a variety of medications