Saturday, May 5, 2007

Parkinson's disease patients should see movement disorders specialist

From everything that I have read, one of the best ways to improve your odds of living well with Parkinson's disease is choosing the right doctor. Most people with Parkinson's disease make appointments with a neurologist to manage Parkinson's disease. If a person is having their general practitioner (internist, family practice doctor, or internal medicine physician) manage their Parkinson's disease, they may be missing some opportunities to improve their life. Primary care physicians are incredibly skilled and intelligent. They just do not typically focus their practice enough on Parkinson's disease to really dominate treating it.

Do neurologists focus enough to effectively treat Parkinson's disease?
Neurologists treat multiple sclerosis, strokes, back pain, nerve injuries and a number of other conditions, in addition to movement disorders like Parkinson's. It is an immense amount of information to dominate and keep up on. So, general neurologists are probably pretty good at treating Parkinson's disease. However, there is probably one better option.

A movement disorders specialist is a neurologist (or in a few cases a psychiatrist or other physician). But, in addition to being a neurologist, they also have completed other years of training in movement disorders. Parkinson's disease is a movement disorder, so it makes sense for a movement disorders specialist to be the doctor that treats Parkinson's disease patients.

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