Parkinson’s disease, or PD, can produce both motor and non-motor symptoms. There are 4 symptoms that are considered the cardinal signs of Parkinson’s disease, postural instability, bradykinesia, rigidity and tremor. Postural instability is the failure of an individual to have normal postural reflexes. This is also related to other factors like sensory and cognitive changes, and orthostatic hypotension. This typically appears in the later stages of Parkinson’s disease. Bradykinesia is the slowness of movement, which can later on become akinesia; the total loss of movement. Rigidity in Parkinson’s disease is defined as increased muscle tone and joint stiffness. Tremors are well-known and the most apparent symptom of Parkinson’s disease. There are other motor symptoms that include shuffling gait, decreased arm-swinging, camptocormia (flexed-forward, stooped posture), festination, and gait freezing. There are also swallowing and speech disturbances. The individual will have soft speech, and tend to speak in a monotonous, hoarse but soft voice. The individual might also drool because of infrequent and weak swallowing. Other motor symptoms like fatigue, difficulty in rolling in bed, micrographia, akathisia, hypmimia and primitive reflexes.

Parkinson’s disease can also cause neuropsychiatric problems that mainly include mood, behavior, and cognition problems. The individual will start having slower reaction times; he/she will start having problems paying attention, prioritizing, problems with controlling his/her impulses and interpreting social cues. Later on, the individual might develop dementia. They might also start to suffer short-term memory loss. They might start having common mood problems like depression that might go on to become anxiety, they might also start to feel apathetic, and then develop hallucinations.

Individuals might also start having problems with their sleeping pattern. They might suffer from excessive somnolence during the day, and have insomnia at night. They can also start to have altered perception, have problems with their sense of smell, and feel pain in different parts of their body.