Parkinson's Disease

Citation

Gibson G (2025) Parkinson's Disease. Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Health, Illness, Behavior and Society. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118410868.wbehibs1030

Abstract
This entry provides a summary of Parkinson's disease (hereafter PD), a serious, progressive neurological condition, which predominantly affects people in older age. PD has a characteristic profile of symptoms, which predominantly affects mobility and movement, but increasingly affects the wider dimensions of a person's life. Unlike many neurological conditions, a range of pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments are available to treat PD, which have both significant beneficial and iatrogenic effects on the person's quality of life and well-being. This entry summarizes some of the major literature which has explained PD from a social science perspective. This literature provides an understanding of PD as a lived condition, its impacts in relation to a range of social processes including gender and aging, and research exploring the impact of PD and its therapies on identity and selfhood.