Autonomic Dysfunction and Failure in Parkinson’s Disease

Autonomic complications in Parkinsonian syndromes present a considerable cause of reduced quality of life, morbidity, and mortality [1]. Recognition, evaluation, and management are of utmost importance. The autonomic nervous system is still a field that to many clinicians is obscure or at least its involvement in the clinical course is hard to grasp. This may be based on the considerable widespread knowledge gap and lack of access in electrophysiology evaluation of the autonomic nervous system [2]. However, autonomic syndromes in several autonomic domains are easily evaluable at the bedside, with electrophysiologic autonomic evaluation only necessary in a minority of patients [3]. This chapter will provide a clinical focus on the autonomic cardiovascular, thermoregulatory, urogenital, and gastrointestinal systems.