Pick's Disease
Patients with Pick’s disease are suffering a disease that affect the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. Pick’s disease is very similar to Alzheimer’s disease in that it causes the brain to function improperly. The reason why function becomes impaired for patients with Pick’s disease is because the brain has an excess build up of protein and the protein actually causes the brain cells to diminish. These cells are vital to daily functions, such as speech, movement, and they also help to regulate mood. Patients who have Pick’s disease will suffer from any one or more of the following symptoms:
-Memory Loss, Mood Changes, and Behavioral Changes
-Mobility impaired, Speech Impairment
-Poor judgment, Lack of Cognitive Ability and Uncoordinated.
Patients who are diagnosed with Pick’s disease have a variety of options to help manage this disease. Pick’s disease is a rare disorder that is not easily or accurately diagnosed until after death. This makes it very difficult to determine whether or not someone actually has this disease. There are no tests that will positively and absolutely determine whether or not a patient has Pick’s disease. However, there are some symptoms of this disease that, in combination, stand out to help doctors recognize this disease in order to diagnose patients right away. If a person is experiencing behavioral changes, and is unable to control normal functions with no regard to consequence, these may be warning signs that pin point someone who may have Pick’s disease. These characteristics, if presented in a patient before the age of 65, will most likely distinguish the disorder as Pick’s Disease, not to be confused with Alzheimer’s disease, which shows very similar symptoms when it develops.
Those who have Pick’s disease can find ways to cope with their symptoms. To deal with their hearing or speech impairment, that is associated with this disorder, patients can obtain hearing aids to bolster their hearing ability and also they can attend speech therapy classes to help them maintain and prove their speech capabilities. In addition to these aids, patients with Pick’s disease can consult a doctor to prescribe them drugs to help balance their activity, and their behavior. Some drugs will help even out the mood swings or behavior changes that are brought on as a result of this disease. Like so many other diseases there is still no cure for this disease and it often goes unrecognized until death. Since it is so hard to diagnose this disease, it is even more difficult to handle the symptoms if there is no conclusive way to determine whether or not a patient has Pick’s disease. There is another option to help deal with the effects of this disease once diagnosed and that is clinical trials. Although many clinical trials are experimental in nature, some may prove successful in lessening or diminishing the effects and symptoms caused by this disease. Clinical trials are voluntary but help to increase awareness and provide valuable insights to doctors who are working hard to prefect and create medicines to help cure and alleviate the pains of their patients.