APPENDIX( continued)
Occupational Therapists( OTs): Primarily focused on the“ occupation”— what people do each day. This means helping individuals with PSP, CBD, and MSA find new ways of doing the activities that mean the most to them. OTs help both patients and carepartners to problem solve and create new ways to make routine activities easier and safer.
Orthostatic Hypotension: A sudden decrease in blood pressure that occurs when the affected individual sits up or stands. In some cases, it may occur as a side effect of certain medications.
Oxidative Stress: A process in which substances called free radicals( see above) build up in the cells as the cells convert nutrients into energy. The free radicals can damage different parts of the cells causing stress to the cell and impairing its functioning. The free radicals can be counteracted by antioxidants( for example, Coenzyme Q10 acts as a scavenger of free radicals).
Palliative Care: Specialized medical care for people with serious illness. This type of care is focused on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of a serious illness. The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family. Palliative care is provided by a specially trained team of doctors, nurses, and other specialists who work together with a patient’ s other doctors to provide an extra layer of support. It is appropriate at any age and at any stage in a serious illness. This type of care treats pain, depression, shortness of breath, fatigue, constipation, nausea, loss of appetite, difficulty sleeping, anxiety, and any other symptoms that may be causing distress.
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Parkinson’ s Disease( PD): A slowly progressive neurodegenerative brain disorder characterized by slowness or poverty of movement( bradykinesia), rigidity, postural instability, and tremor primarily while at rest. Additional characteristic findings include a shuffling, unbalanced manner of walking; forward bending or flexion of the trunk; a fixed or“ mask-like” facial expression; weakness of the voice; abnormally small, cramped handwriting( micrographia); depression; or other symptoms and findings. Such abnormalities are thought to result from progressive loss of nerve cells within a certain region of the substantia nigra of the brain and the associated depletion of the neurotransmitter dopamine.
Pathogenesis: The origination and development of a disease.
Peripheral Nervous System: The peripheral nervous system is that portion of the nervous system outside of the brain and spinal cord( see central nervous system).
Physiatrist: A physician with additional postgraduate training in physical medicine and rehabilitation.
Physical Therapists( PTs): Healthcare professionals with extensive clinical experience who examine, diagnose, and then prevent or treat conditions that limit the body’ s ability to move and function in daily life. They can help improve or restore mobility by applying research and proven techniques. Physical therapists provide care for people in a variety of settings, including hospitals, private practices, outpatient clinics, home health agencies, schools, sports and fitness facilities, work settings, and nursing homes.
Placebo: The sheer anticipation of new drug, surgery, or procedure that could potentially end the suffering of a patient can provide improvement of symptoms for a period of time. Hence in a clinical trial setting, a substance or procedure that appears to be identical to the treatment under study but that has no effects on the test subject, will be given to one group of study participants. At the end of a study when all data are analyzed, the placebo group are compared to the group who received the new active drug or procedure( called the treatment group). If only the treatment group improved, the drug or procedure had a unique positive effect on patients. If both groups improve to the same degree or do not change, the placebo group proved that the new drug or procedure is not effective.