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“Parkinson’s disease is somewhat neglected in our system. We are not treated like, for example, cancer and heart patients who need multidisciplinary treatment. Unfortunately only a small percentage of patients have access to this.” the president of the Trepetlika Cvetka association, Pavlina Likar, warned in today’s press conference.
The association, which for 30 years has brought together more than 1,200 people with Parkinson’s disease and other extrapyramidal disorders and their caregivers, has been drawing attention to this aspect for 23 years. The health insurance institute (ZZZS) has been asking for rehabilitation recognition every year for ten consecutive years, including the Ministry of Health, but to date they have not received a response, it warned. In the meantime, it emerged that restorative rehabilitation should be legalized for all disabled people in the health care law. “Amendments to the law were proposed by the National Council in June, but the government deemed the proposal inappropriate and we are now awaiting the National Assembly’s decision,” Likar said.
Neurologist Dušan Flisar from the University Medical Center (UKC) in Ljubljana also pointed out that patients with Parkinson’s disease are not yet receiving full treatment. “Rehabilitation programs are currently underway in two spas, but to a limited extent they are not available to all patients and, more importantly, they are not formalized,” he said. .
As neurologist Maja Trošt explained, Parkinson’s disease is a slowly progressing degenerative brain disease, the cause of which is unknown. The main feature is the decay of dopamine neurons into the compact substantia nigra. This manifests itself in motor and non-motor symptoms such as tremors, muscle stiffness, slower movement and loss of balance, indigestion, insomnia, and bladder problems. It mainly affects physical movement and slowly unable the patient to live independently.
People most often get sick at the age of about 60. In many people, the first signs appear earlier, but the disease is difficult to diagnose. Troštova, who runs the center for extrapyramidal diseases at the Ljubljana neurological clinic, stressed that they want more patients to gain their experience, not just those who come to the hospital. Namely, most treatments are done on an outpatient basis and these patients do not receive team care.
Parkinson’s disease is treated by relieving symptoms with a combination of medications, therapies, and surgical treatments. The latter was described by neurologist Dejan Georgiev of the Ljubljana University Medical Center: “Patients in the advanced stage, when drugs do not help enough, in addition to pump treatment, we recommend neurosurgical treatment – deep brain stimulation”.
According to him, between 15 and 20 operations of this type have been performed in the neurology clinic in recent years in collaboration with neurosurgeons. However, according to him, patients would need twice as much, as some have been waiting for surgery for more than two years due to the lack of operating rooms at the Ljubljana University Medical Center.
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