I absolutely agree that in some people this disease can be psychosomatic. I was diagnosed during a very stressful time in my life. Even now after being diagnosed as not having PD I find myself getting tremor fits when I think too much about very stressful things. I can stop the fits with intense concentration but it is exhausting. It's very annoying to have something so uncomfortable and painful start up when I want to relax and go to sleep. It drives me absolutely bats to be relaxing in bed and think about the tremors and they start up. It's almost become a behavioral component of trying to stop taking sinemet.
My Mom has a friend that was dx'd with MS only to find she didn't have it after her stressful divorce was finalized. My story is much the same.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GerryW
A few years ago before diagnosis I noticed that my left arm didn't swing when I walked. It wasn't stiff or rigid. It just didn't swing. I asked my HMO doctor about it and his response was, "Can you still use it?"
I said, yes I could. He laughed and said, "Then don't worry about it."
Now, of course, it turned out to be PD. The odd thing is I noticed recently that my left arm swings fine now but my right arm doesn't!
PD is a strange disease and I grow more suspicious that it is largely psychosomatic with more of a psych component than soma at least for a certain subpopulation. I also read that the placebo effect is strong in PD and can last 6 months or more. Then there is the usual relationship to stressful events.
Perhaps more research should be done on the mind-body connection in PD.
|