Parkinson's is a complex condition with a wide variety of symptoms. Symptoms start to appear when the brain can't make enough dopamine to control movement properly.
The three main, and commonly recognised syptoms are tremor, slowness of movement and rigidity. There are many other symptoms and researchers are working hard to understand how these all interact.
- Parkinson’s is categorized by clinicians as a “movement disorder” and symptoms may include muscle rigidity, tremor, postural instability and bradykinesia (slowness of movement). Many people think of tremor in Parkinson's but in around 30% of cases tremor is not present.
- Parkinson's doesn’t just affect movement. Non-motor symptoms such as pain, sensory changes, changes in the gastrointestinal system, depression and problems with memory, thinking and sleep can also occur and have an impact on the day to day life of the person with Parkinson’s.
