13/06/2026 13:03 - Salud
Una persona mayor contemplando un paisaje soleado a través de una ventana, representando la esperanza y la búsqueda de sentido frente a la enfermedad de Parkinson. Imagen serena con tonos cálidos que transmitan dignidad y superación personal.
When a Parkinson's disease diagnosis is delivered, it arrives as unexpected news that fractures one's identity. The symptom that immediately comes to mind for most people is the trembling hand. But those who experience the disease and their caregivers know there will be a complex psychological and cognitive reconfiguration of the person.
This neurodegenerative disease, which according to reports legendary Argentine rock musician El Indio Solari had been suffering from since 2016, affects the production of dopamine—a key neurotransmitter not only for movement but also for the brain's pleasure and motivation circuits. Note: El Indio Solari is one of Argentina's most influential rock artists, often called the father of Argentine rock, making his public battle with Parkinson's a significant moment for awareness in Latin America.
One of the most characteristic symptoms that causes confusion in the environment is hypomimia or masked face. Psychologist Alexis Alderete (MP 85367), specialist in Anxiety Disorders and Skills Training, explains: The loss of facial expressiveness causes the environment to mistakenly interpret that the patient is angry, distant, or disinterested, when what they are experiencing is a muscle rigidity that prevents emotions from being reflected on the face.
This misunderstanding generates social isolation and further complicates the patient's personal relationships.
The specialist describes that what the patient experiences and expresses to their environment is loss. Loss of control, spontaneity, and autonomy.
Small everyday acts begin to present greater difficulty: buttoning a shirt, typing on a computer, or signing a document becomes a battle against their own nervous system. This new reality leads to a change in self-image perception. The affected person no longer recognizes themselves in a body that doesn't respond with the speed and practicality it had before diagnosis.
Treatment for the patient can never be exclusively neurological; it requires an interdisciplinary approach where psychotherapy is a fundamental pillar.
There is suffering from the loss of interest, initiative, and the beginning of slow reactions in all areas. Developing a new life project for the patient, providing coping tools, and fundamentally supporting the family to prevent caregiver collapse.
Maintaining an active life purpose—whether creating, teaching, connecting with others, practicing an art, or simply accompanying others—is one of the most powerful cognitive protective factors known against progressive deterioration.
Not because it stops the disease, but because it preserves what the disease most wants to destroy: meaning.
The challenge is helping the patient understand that, although Parkinson's alters how they will navigate the coming years of life, the essence of who that person is with their own life story remains intact. It's about learning to inhabit the body from a new score, finding dignity, meaning, and connection in every possible movement.
Alfredo S. Quiroga
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