Picks Disease Essay -- Biology Essays Research Papers

Pick's Disease Pick's disease is a form of dementia characterized by a progressive and irreversible deterioration of social skills and changes in personality, along with impairment of intellect, memory, and language. In 1892 Arnold Pick, a German neurologist studied a patient who in his life had dementia and lost of speech. When the patient died, his brain shrunk, with the brain cells having died (atrophied) in the specific areas of the brain. In Pick’s disease, the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain are most affected. Changes occur in the cerebral cortex (which is how the frontal lobe is affected.) Pick's disease affects the temporal lobes of the brain in 25%, frontal lobes in 25% and both frontal and temporal lobes in 50% of cases (1). Damage to the frontal lobes leads to alterations in personality and behavior, changes in the way a person feels and expresses emotion, and loss of judgment. On a microscopic level, there is severe neuron damage in the cerebral cortex. The brain cells in these areas are found to be abnormal and swollen. These abnormal cells define Pick’s disease and are called Pick’s cells. Pick’s disease is often confused with Alzheimer’s disease where the degeneration generally affects mostly the temporal and the parietal lobes of the brain (2). When such typical cells are not seen on post-mortem examination but the same areas of the brain are affected by cell death the case may be described as Pick's syndrome (3). In the early stages of Pick’s disease, unlike Alzheimer’s in its early stages, the patient can recognize people and places. Usually, an infected person is diagnosed with "probable Alzheimer’s", it is later discovered that the patient has Pick’s disease (2). There are three stages of the d... ...s exist as an inherited disease in some families. The majority of case studies show that the patients affected have no family history of the disease. The rate of progression varies enormously between people ranging from a duration from 2-15 years (2). The death is usually caused by infection. Medication can be used to treat some of the behavioral problems. Pick’s disease alone is a very mentally and physically draining disease but along with medication, it maybe almost impossible for patients to continue a normal life once they are diagnosed with the disease and begin treatment. Sources 1)Frontal Lobe Dementia and Pick’s Disease, http://www.alznsw.asn.au/library/picks.htm 2)Pick’s Disease from Alzheimer’s Outreach, http://www.zarcrom.com/users/alzheimers/odem/pk1.html 3)CANDID Fact Sheets, http://www.candid.ion.ucl.ac.uk/candid/factsheets/facts1.htm