Aid

Hi all can somebody tell me whats the difference between parkinsons, and parkinsonism

I started off with a diagnosis of “parkinsonism” and this was later changed to “Parkinson’s” - for the time being, as it might be something else and time will tell.

Parkinsonism is where there are Parkinson’s symptoms, but not necessarily PD.

Hi lemon i have been told i have parkinsonism not parkinsons disease which answers a few questions for me if i didn’t have this tremor you wouldn’t know

I’ve got a violent tremor, stiffness in my hands, postural instability (like being on a ship), but not “slowness” - so it seemed at first that this perhaps wasn’t PD. But I’ve now got PD as a diagnosis until/unless anything else happens to point towards some other thing (which would be worse. All the other things are much worse. PD is the good outcome, says my neurologist).

For the definitive answer, my neurologist says, he’d need to look at a slice of my brain under the microscope.

Hi @calv1960,

Parkinsonism is a term used to describe a number of conditions that manifest with movement abnormalities such as rigidity, trouble walking (shuffling), slow movement, tremor, etc.

The most common form of parkinsonism is Idiopathic Parkinson’s Disease (or simply Parkinson’s), but there are other forms as well. They all share one or more similar symptoms, but can also have symptoms unique to their form.

If you’re interested in learning a bit more about the different forms of parkinsonism I would recommend checking out our parkinsonism info page.

Sincerely,
Joy
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