9-Speech problems
Patients with Parkinson’s disease have a problem in the musculoskeletal system, which is also found in the phonatory apparatus. To speak properly we need a combined and specialized movement of the tongue, the mouth, and the vocal cords. When Parkinson’s disease symptoms are extended to this area, the patient starts having problems to articulate speech. Even before having these problems, their speech changes and becomes monotone, soft, and very slow, and fluency becomes severely affected as the disease progresses. In some cases, patients with Parkinson develop additional problems such as stuttering and breathing heavily between one set of words and the other. Each one of these symptoms should be evaluated by a professional to understand the root cause and what we can do about it.