PERCEPTION OF PATIENTS WITH PARKINSON'S DISEASE: CONTRIBUTIONS TO COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH EDUCATION
Parkinson's Disease; Disease Experience; Comprehensive Care.
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease characterized by the manifestation of motor symptoms, the main ones being: bradykinesia, muscle rigidity and resting tremor; as well as non-motor symptoms, such as depression, pain, sleep disturbance and cognitive impairment. Symptoms that have a psychosocial impact on the lives of patients with PD. Most health actions are based on the biomedical model, which overvalues the disease and its symptoms, and in the case of PD, it focuses especially on motor symptoms and their treatment. It is important to give voice to the chronically ill based on their weaknesses and needs and thus foster possibilities of intervention in the health-disease-care processes. This work aims to promote comprehensive health education based on the perception of PD patients about their disease process and treatment. This is a qualitative, descriptive and analytical research based on the Phenomenological Method. Research data were collected through individual interviews using the semi-structured interview script McGill MINI – Narrative of illness. The participants were 7 patients aged between 48 and 73 years, treated at the Movement Disorder Outpatient Clinic of the Onofre Lopes University Hospital, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte. From the reports obtained, three thematic nuclei emerged that concern the patient before his diagnosis, living with the signs and symptoms of the disease and its treatment and the psychosocial impact of the disease and health care. Patients report psychological suffering with an impact on their daily lives and on their social and work relationships, which, in general, can harm their relationship with the illness itself. It brings reflection on the importance of teamwork and a broad view of the subject, as well as the strengthening of health education from the perspective of comprehensive health care.