Giant cell arteritis (GCA) or Temporal arteritis (TA) is an autoimmune disease and the most common type of vasculitis in the elderly. It causes inflammation of the medium and large arteries in the upper part of the body. GCA is an under-recognized cause of head aches in the elderly, especially when it presents itself with atypical features, resulting in delayed or incorrect diagnosis. Since GCA is a treatable condition, an accurate diagnosis is crucial to prevent the most serious complication of CGA, permanent vision loss. The diagnosis can be further complicated as GCA may present with features of other painful neurological conditions. The present case is an 81-year-old woman diagnosed with GCA, who initially presented with features similar to tension-type headache. Due to overlapping features of these conditions, the diagnosis of GCA was delayed, resulting in irreversible vision loss. Although previous research highlights diagnostic dilemmas featuring GCA and other disease states, this case is exclusive in describing a unique dilemma where tension-type headache mimics GCA.
Among the various non‐motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD), pain is often cited as the most common and debilitating feature. Currently, the literature contains gaps in knowledge with respect to the various forms of treatment available, particularly non‐pharmacological therapies. Thus, the purpose of this systematic review is to provide an examination of the literature on non‐pharmacological therapies for pain in PD. We compared the findings of research articles indexed within various literature databases related to non‐pharmacological treatments of pain in PD patients. Our review identified five major non‐pharmacological methods of pain therapy in PD: acupuncture, hydrotherapy, massage therapy, neuromodulation, and exercise. Treatments such as exercise therapy found a reduction in pain perception due to various factors, including the analgesic effects of neurotransmitter release during exercise and increased activity leading to a decrease in musculoskeletal rigidity and stiffness. By the same token, hydrotherapy has been shown to reduce pain perception within PD patients, with authors often citing a combined treatment of exercise and hydrotherapy as an effective treatment for pain management. Multiple methods of neurostimulation were also observed, including deep brain stimulation and spinal cord stimulation. Deep brain stimulation showed efficacy in alleviating certain pain types (dystonic and central), while not others (musculoskeletal). Hence, patients may consider deep brain stimulation as an additive procedure for their current treatment protocol. On the other hand, spinal cord stimulation showed significant improvement in reducing VAS scores for pain. Finally, although the literature on massage therapy and acupuncture effectiveness on pain management is limited, both have demonstrated a reduction in pain perception, with common reasons such as tactile stimulation and release of anti‐nociceptive molecules in the body. Although literature pertaining to non‐pharmacological treatments of pain in PD is sparse, there is copious support for these treatments as beneficial to pain management. Further exploration in the form of clinical trials is warranted to assess the efficacy of such therapies.
Based on these findings, we can conclude that anxiety and nocturia are not entirely independent symptoms in all PD patients. Thus, addressing anxiety may improve nocturia in PD or vice versa.
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