Just for the sake of speculation, here are the symptoms of two similar conditions: Condition 1 is characterized by tremors, difficulty speaking and nervous tics. It often is associated with difficulty maintaining balance and posture. Condition 2 is characterized by tremors, difficulty speaking and nervous tics. It often is associated with difficulty maintaining balance and posture.
Each condition also has other symptoms that further research and discovery can shed light on, but the ones mentioned are the most common. They also happen to be identical. These are the symptoms for Tardive Dyskinesia and Parkinson’s disease.
Tardive Dyskinesia is a neurological condition in which physical tics and uncontrolled body movements begin after a delayed period from the time a patient is prescribed Reglan. It most often affects patients older than sixty, who have been on the medication for an extended period of time — typically further than the 12 weeks recommended on the prescription instructions carried on the medication. Quick diagnosis is absolutely vital to recovery, because the longer a patient is exposed to Reglan, the more likely the condition will remain permanent.
However, Tardive Dyskinesia is easily and frequently misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s disease instead. The presentation of symptoms is very similar between the two conditions, and doctors can easily mistake one for the other. This causes a problem, because the patient’s original condition for which they were prescribed the Reglan will continue to be a problem. GERD is a consistent, long-lasting condition that Reglan is brought in to treat as a means of last resort. Thus, while doctors are trying to analyze and treat non-existent Parkinson’s, the patient will continue to expose himself to the medicine causing his tremors in the first place.
The other problem is that misdiagnosis does more than waste a patient’s time and money. He also must begin a regimen of therapies and tests to treat and alleviate the impact of a disease he does not actually have. Finding out later that all their therapy has been for naught can be discouraging and infuriating.
