Compare and Contrast each of the diseases Essay

Compare and Contrast distributively of the diseases - Essay ExampleBoth Parkinsons (PD) and Alzheimers (AD) diseases are common neurodegenerative disorders (Beal, 2005). While the preponderance of AD increases with age, there is not much increase in case of PD. AD has a prevalence of roughly 1% among those between 65 to 69 old age 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 elder (Nussbaum & Ellis, 2003). Both these conditions result due to loss of neurons in parts of brain. AD particularly affects neurons in the lens 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 stultification in memory. There is impairment of judgement, decision making, concentration, orientation and language. The patient can present with agitation, psychosis, depression, apathy, disinhibition, anxiety, delusions, purposeless behavior, and disorders of cessation 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 fundamental 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 say to cause neuronal death in Alzheimers disease due to increases in intracellular Ca2+ (Bleich, Romer, Wiltfang & Kornhuber, 2003). PD