These can be among the most serious and complex issues faced by people with PD. These issues can be caused both by the disease itself and by the medications used to treat it. The good news is that there are steps that you can take to lessen its impact on your life. Impaired ability to empty the contents of the stomach, called gastroparesis, is a potential complication of PD. This may produce a bloated sensation and cause you to feel full even if you have eaten very little.
Sometimes nausea may develop. Failure of the stomach to empty in a timely fashion may also impair or delay the effectiveness of PD medications, especially levodopa. Levodopa is absorbed from the small intestine and cannot get to its destination if it is trapped in the stomach. Unfortunately, treatment of gastroparesis in PD has not been extensively studied, and there are not many treatment options. Domperidone is an effective medication, but it is not available in the US.
New levodopa delivery methods that bypass the stomach might help in the future, such as a skin patch, supplemental treatment with DBS, sublingual, or subcutaneous agonists. Constipation means difficulty passing stools bowel movement, feces , a decrease in the number of stools, or both. It is often accompanied by one or more of the following symptoms:. Constipation can be acute sudden onset of short duration or chronic persisting for several weeks or longer.
In PD, constipation is likely to be chronic. Most healthcare providers describe constipation as having less than three bowel movements a week and recommend treatment after three days without a bowel movement, but everyone is slightly different.
The frequency of bowel movements depends on what you have been eating and drinking, and the unique functioning of your own body. If you are experiencing fewer than three bowel movements in a week or have any of the symptoms listed, talk to your healthcare provider. These changes may slow down the muscles that push food through the intestines. Medications used to treat PD β in particular, the class called anticholinergics and the medication amantadine, used to treat dyskinesia β are known for causing constipation.
