Symptoms Of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy

Dysphagia

Dysphagia is an early sign of PSP but can become more of a problem as the disease progresses. Dysphagia is the medical term that describes difficulty swallowing. This symptom includes difficulty starting a swallow, called oropharyngeal dysphagia, and the sensation of food being lodged in the neck or chest called esophageal dysphagia. Some signs of oropharyngeal dysphagia include difficulty controlling food in the mouth, inability to control saliva, difficulty initiating a swallow, coughing, choking, frequent pneumonia, unexplained weight loss, gurgly or wet voice after swallowing, nasal regurgitation. The most common symptom of esophageal dysphagia is the inability to swallow solid foods, and these foods often become stuck before it passes into the stomach. Most patients dealing with PSP will experience any one of these symptoms and difficulty swallowing in general.

One particular study examined the abnormalities patients with PSP experience during the multiple stages of ingestion, and their symptoms included uncoordinated lingual movements, impaired posterior lingual displacement, copious pharyngeal secretions, and absent velar retraction or elevation. PSP patients also had significantly fewer continuous swallows and required a longer duration to complete their swallows than those with healthy controls.

Loss Of Bladder & Bowel Function

In advanced stages of PSP, unfortunately, many patients experience difficulties with controlling their bladder and bowel functions. Constipation and difficulties urinating are quite common, as well as uncontrollable urination, especially at night, as many patients in the advanced stage report having to urinate multiple times throughout the night. Some patients even experience urinary incontinence, which is the unintentional passing of urine, and there are multiple types of urine incontinence, such as stress incontinence, urge incontinence, overflow incontinence, and total incontinence. Researchers have also determined that patients with PSP experience a variety of urinary dysfunctions, such as problems with the bladder storing and withholding urine and issues with expelling urine from the bladder, which leads to either frequent urination or leaking or issues with urinating itself.