Question: Is There a Parkinsonian Personality?
Answer: Common personality traits have been noted in people with Parkinson's disease (PD).
Many experts on PD, including spouses of persons with PD, claim that persons with PD develop certain distinctive personality traits, and that these traits appear way before the onset of the motor symptoms of PD. What is this parkinsonian personality that so many people have talked about? It is a remarkable fact that observers of people with PD, even observers who lived over a hundred years ago, claim that the parkinsonian personality type is characterized as
- ambitious
- industrious
- serious
- single-minded
- rigid
- introverted
- slow-tempered, and
- harm-avoidant
Observers and spouses of persons with PD also claim that this personality profile developed years before the onset of the motor symptoms of PD. The idea is that loss of dopamine starts years before any movement problems emerge and this loss of
dopamine has subtle effects on the personality. Given that dopamine is the brain chemical that allows you to feel energy, pleasure, and thrills, it follows that if you are low on dopamine, you may become more introverted and and less willing to take risks for a cheap thrill. Interestingly, persons with PD tend not to smoke or to engage in other risky health behaviors until they are medicated with
dopamine agonists. These dopamine agonists tend to over-activate sites in the limbic system, the part of the brain that handles emotion, reward and thrill seeking. Unfortunately, these same dopamine agonists may so effectively activate the pleasure centers of the brain that the patient begins to undergo another personality change -- this time in the direction of risky-behavioral, rather than harm avoidant behavioral strategies.
Gambling and sexual risk taking may occur, and it may occur in such circumstance and quantity as to threaten the well-being of the patient and his family. Thus, study of personality changes in PD is vitally important.
Source: Friedman, J.H. (2008). Making the connection between brain and behavior: Coping with Parkinsons Disease. New York: Demos medical Publishing.
