How does PSP affect the eyes?

A person with PSP will begin to experience eye problems, such as difficulty opening and closing their eyes, blinking, blurry vision, or moving their eyes side to side or up and down. Later in the disease, people with PSP may feel increasing weakness in their limbs.

Can PSP cause blindness?

They are typical dystonic indicators of PSP, often related to visual disabilities including functional blindness [100, 101].

How long do PSP patients live?

With good care and attention to medical needs, nutritional needs, and safety, a person with PSP can live many years. The typical lifespan from the first appearance of symptoms is about 6-10 years.

What are the stages of progressive supranuclear palsy?

The four stages are: Early stage. Mid stage. Advanced stage.

What is progressive supranuclear palsy gaze?

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is a disease of later life that is currently regarded as a form of neurodegenerative tauopathy. Disturbance of gaze is a cardinal clinical feature of PSP that often helps clinicians to establish the diagnosis.

PSP Back to Basics

What do the final stages of PSP look like?

The final stages of PSP are usually dominated by an increasingly severe dysarthria and dysphagia. These features are usually described as being part of a pseudo-bulbar palsy, as brisk jaw and facial jerks may be present.

What are the first signs of progressive supranuclear palsy?

Do PSP patients sleep a lot?

They often have disequilibrium, impaired memory, and personality changes. Poor sleep is common with PSP. It takes longer for patients to fall asleep, and they wake more frequently during the night, resulting in a shorter time asleep.

Does PSP make you sleepy?

Patients with PSP may have significant sleep pattern disruptions because the disease affects some neural circuitries that are involved in sleep processing. They may suffer from insomnia, including difficulties with falling and staying asleep.

Is PSP a serious illness?

Progressive supranuclear palsy is an uncommon brain disorder that causes serious problems with walking, balance and eye movements, and later with swallowing. The disorder results from deterioration of cells in areas of your brain that control body movement, coordination, thinking and other important functions.

Is supranuclear palsy painful?

Pain was significantly more common and more severe in PD and MSA compared to PSP (P < 0.01). Pain locations were similar with limb pain being the most common followed by neck and back pain. Pain intensity correlated with HADS scores but not motor severity.

Is PSP a terminal disease?

Most of the time, it affects people in late middle age or older. Although PSP isn't fatal, symptoms do continue to worsen and it can't be cured. Complications that result from worsening symptoms, such as pneumonia (from breathing in food particles while choking during eating), can be life threatening.

Does exercise help with PSP?

Structured exercises can improve strength, mobility, and balance in people living with PSP (9). Physical therapy (11) and physical activities, such as walking (12, 13), music-cued movement (14), dancing (15), and cycling (16), can also improve fitness, community ambulation, and social participation in parkinsonism.

What is the best treatment for PSP?

What causes vertical gaze palsy in PSP?

The vertical gaze palsy of PSP has been attributed to the midbrain pathology affecting the tectum and the superior colliculi.

Does PSP show up on an MRI?

Conclusion: The area of the midbrain on mid-sagittal MRI can differentiate PSP from PD, MSA-P, and normal aging.

Does PSP cause weight loss?

Conclusions. Weight loss begins in the early stage of PSP, whereas dopaminergic treatment may contribute to keep weight in the early stage of PD through reduction of energy expenditure and/or improvement in appetite.

Is dizziness a symptom of PSP?

Falls experienced by a PSP patient are often described as having a state of dizziness, prior to actually falling. This dizziness description is sometimes misdiagnosed as an inner ear problem or a hardening of the arteries that are blocking blood flow to the brain. Other common symptoms of PSP include: Forgetfulness.

Does PSP cause insomnia?

Abnormalities in sleep architecture and insomnia are more frequently described in PSP than in the other neurodegenerative disorders.

How long does advanced stage of PSP last?

Although rare cases of PSP with more rapid progression have been described, they are typically over 2 to 3 years.

Is coughing a symptom of PSP?

Swallowing difficulties are also common in PSP. These include: Coughing or choking on food or drink. Wet voice quality when eating or drinking.

Does PSP run in families?

Most cases of progressive supranuclear palsy are sporadic, which means they occur in people with no history of the disorder in their family. However, some people with this disorder have had family members with related conditions, such as parkinsonism and a loss of intellectual functions (dementia).

Does PSP affect cognition?

PSP patients also experience cognitive and behavioral changes consistent with a decline in frontal lobe functioning, such as slow information processing and retrieval, concrete thinking, impaired reasoning, difficulty planning and shifting between tasks.

Do people with PSP get dementia?

Symptoms of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP)

However, about 7 in 10 people who have PSP are likely to develop dementia at some point. Although memory is not often badly affected by the condition, PSP can affect other parts of a person's thinking.

Does PSP affect speech?

Speech changes are common in PSP. Speech can become slurred or speech rate can become too fast, leading to difficulties being understood. Changes in voice quality can also occur: strained or harsh voice, or quiet and breathy voice.