Adam Margolias, MD, a movement disorders specialist at Cleveland Clinic, helps lead a multidisciplinary clinic for people with advanced Parkinson’s and palliative care needs. He highlights the importance of not assuming mood or cognitive decline, and stresses that people with advanced Parkinson’s deserve dignity and to be met at their level.
Transcript
There are a lot of misconceptions about Parkinson’s out there. One common thing I see is that Parkinson’s can affect your facial expression.
They call it masked; faces are sort of like a Parkinson’s mask. People often mistake that for depression. A patient with Parkinson’s might not smile or laugh as much, but that’s not necessarily a reflection of how they’re feeling on the inside.
Both family members and doctors, when speaking with someone with Parkinson’s, should avoid making assumptions about their mood or emotions. It’s important to ask, navigate, and really dig at those feelings to get a good sense of where the patient stands.
Another misconception is that when the disease advances physically, patients can become very disabled. They might be unable to walk or have frequent falls.
Sometimes family members or doctors assume that a patient is also very cognitively impaired. But those symptoms can be very different. A patient might have no cognitive symptoms at all, but may have trouble speaking and walking.
When talking with someone in that form of Parkinson’s, it’s essential to give them the dignity they deserve. Often, they are completely with it, and you have to make sure you’re approaching them at their level.
