Compare and Contrast each of the diseases Essay

Compare and Contrast each of the diseases - Essay Example Both Parkinson’s (PD) and Alzheimer’s (AD) diseases are common neurodegenerative disorders (Beal, 2005). While the prevalence of AD increases with age, there is not much increase in case of PD. AD has a prevalence of about 1% among those between 65 to 69 years of age (Hy & Keller, 2000) while PD has a prevalence of 0.5 to 1% in this age group (Nussbaum & Ellis, 2003). However, the prevalence of AD is 40 to 50% among those 95 years of age and over (Hy & Keller, 2000) and that of PD is only 3% in those 80 years of age and older (Nussbaum & Ellis, 2003). Both these conditions result due to loss of neurons in parts of brain. AD particularly affects neurons in the cortex and the hippocampus (Mc Khann, Drachman, Folstein, Katzman, Price & Stadlan, 2003) while PD affects neurons in the substantia nigra (Nussbaum & Ellis, 2003). AD presents mainly with progressive impairment in memory. There is impairment of judgement, decision making, concentration, orientation and language. T he patient can present with agitation, psychosis, depression, apathy, disinhibition, anxiety, delusions, purposeless behavior, and disorders of sleep and appetite (Cummings & Back, 1998). Of all these, agitation is the most common symptom and psychosis is seen in 30-60% of the patients. The most common behavioural changes are personality alterations (Cumming & Back, 1998). The destruction of cholinergic neurons in the basal forebrain and the resulting deficit in central cholinergic transmission is the cause for characteristic cognitive and non-cognitive symptoms in AD (Cummings & Back, 1998). Another theory as far as the cause of symptoms in AD is concerned is Glutamate excitotoxicity. Excessive activation of NMDA receptors by glutamate is said to cause neuronal death in Alzheimers disease due to increases in intracellular Ca2+ (Bleich, Romer, Wiltfang & Kornhuber, 2003). PD