Parkinson’s patients can also have the opposite problem, which is difficulty initiating or sustaining motion—or even desire to move. Before the development of L-DOPA, a precursor to dopamine that can help patients with Parkinson’s recover some function, many of the people Sacks treated had found themselves literally frozen in particular positions, unable to move without assistance for years. This paralysis is consistent with a very low level of available dopamine. By reducing the availability of dopamine in the brain, Parkinson’s can, frighteningly, affect not only what its victims are able to
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