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Parkinson's Disease: A Guide to Patient Care

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Parkinson's Disease patients might ironically refer to their ailment as "the gift that keeps on giving." They live in a constant struggle to navigate the complexities of a chronic condition that presents an ever-changing landscape of physical and mental symptoms, treatment side-effects and societal perceptions that can sometimes feel like a game of "Whack-a-Mole" for patients, caregivers and clinicians. Now four experts in the treatment of Parkinson's have collaborated on a comprehensive road map for health professionals, "Parkinson's Disease - A Guide to Patient Care."

This book, with an emphasis on substance over style, is constructed as a systematic reference manual designed to help medical professionals maintain an optimal balance among all the various opposing forces faced by their Parkinson's patients. The format is essentially an organized set of lists, detailing characteristics of the disease itself, its impact on the daily lives of people who live with it, and the overlapping array of technical and practical interventions available to the medical professionals who confront it. Each chapter is comprised of concise, readily-referenced bullet points of information essential to the development and evolution of complex treatment plans required for effective management of this frustratingly complex illness. Redundancies abound, since each element is interconnected, and each issue encountered must be weighed and considered against the particular pattern of symptoms presented by the patient, each as individual as they are.

There is an obvious tendency for this type of "technical manual" to become cold and clinical, but threading through this volume is a distinct undercurrent of compassion and encouragement for Parkinson's patients and those close to them. It is this fundamental thoughtfulness and humility that distinguish the book, challenging health professionals to use their mole-whacking abilities to give their patients one more gift--that of hope.