Why Do Parkinson’s Disease Symptoms Come and Go?

Parkinson’s disease is a chronic neurodegenerative condition that causes symptoms such as tremors, muscle stiffness, and speech difficulties. The condition progresses slowly, and symptoms get worse with time.

Symptoms of Parkinson’s can fluctuate throughout the day. For instance, you may feel better at lunchtime than you do in the late evening. But daily variations in the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease are mild, and symptoms don’t resolve completely on their own.

A sudden increase in Parkinson’s symptoms is almost always linked to an underlying cause. This could be something minor, such as a recent medication change, or something potentially serious, such as an infection.

Parkinson’s disease symptoms can fluctuate throughout the day and worsen during certain periods, such as the early morning or late evening. This is typically because medications begin to wear off between doses.

Parkinson’s symptoms get worse over time at a steady, but slow, rate.

Other underlying causes that can worsen Parkinson’s symptoms include:

• stress
• recent medication changes
• recent surgery or other medical procedures
• sleep difficulties
• dehydration
• a new injury or illness

It’s important to let your doctor or healthcare professional know if you notice a sudden change in your Parkinson’s symptoms.

Tremors, especially in the hands and fingers, are the symptom most people associate with Parkinson’s disease.

Tremors are a very common symptom — one that often develops early in the disease process. However, Parkinson’s causes a range of other symptoms in addition to tremors, such as:

• slowed motions
• slowed walking
• shuffled steps
• muscle stiffness
• muscle pain
• difficulty with balance
• stooped posture
• decreased facial expressions and facial movements, such as smiling and blinking
• speaking softly
• difficulty writing
• dizziness or lightheadedness
• trouble sleeping or excessive movements during sleep
• difficulty chewing or swallowing and drooling

Medication can reduce the severity of Parkinson’s disease symptoms. The first-line medication for Parkinson’s disease is called levodopa (Sinemet).

Most formulations of levodopa are combined with carbidopa, which helps reduce the side effects of levodopa and allows people to take smaller doses.

Sometimes, doctors prescribe medications such as dopamine agonists and enzyme inhibitors that prevent the breakdown of dopamine or levodopa to help increase dopamine in the brain.

Additional treatments for symptoms of Parkinson’s disease include options such as amantadine and anticholinergic medications.

Medications prescribed for Parkinson’s disease include short-acting and long-acting formulations. Your symptoms may worsen as your medication wears off. This is often described as “off time,” and your doctor may work with you to time your medications so you have fewer fluctuations with less noticeable “off time.”

Medications aren’t the only treatment options for Parkinson’s disease. Although they’re the primary treatment for most people, they’re often supplemented with therapies such as:

Sometimes surgical interventions, such as deep-brain stimulation, can be beneficial for treating Parkinson’s disease.

There are several known risk factors for Parkinson’s disease. These include:

• being over 60 years of age
• being assigned male at birth
• having a family history of Parkinson’s disease
• working in industries such as farming or welding
• being exposed to certain herbicides and pesticides

Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative condition. When someone has a neurodegenerative condition, their symptoms get worse over time.

With medication and other treatments available today, Parkinson’s doesn’t typically shorten a person’s life span, but it does often reduce the amount of time a person is able to live independently.

In the early stages of Parkinson’s, most people can care for themselves at home and maintain their daily activities. As symptoms progress, people with Parkinson’s have increasing difficulty with self-care, and it can become unsafe for them to live alone.

There’s no cure for Parkinson’s disease. However, treatment can help reduce the severity of symptoms.

Parkinson’s runs in some families. In these families, Parkinson’s is genetic. However, the majority of people with Parkinson’s don’t have a family member with Parkinson’s disease.

Researchers don’t know for certain what causes Parkinson’s disease in these cases. People with Parkinson’s have clumps of abnormal proteins, called Lewy bodies, that build up in the brain and cause damage. However, researchers still don’t know why these proteins occur or buildup.



Stress is one of several factors that can make Parkinson’s disease symptoms worse. People with Parkinson’s have noted that both acute stress and long-term stress aggravate symptoms.

A 2021 study found that stress worsened all symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and that its strongest effect was on tremors.

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative condition. The symptoms of Parkinson’s get worse over time. The symptoms never fully go away on their own without treatment.

Although it’s common for symptoms to fluctuate throughout the day, any sudden changes you notice over the course of days or weeks should always be reported to your doctor.

These sorts of changes aren’t an expected part of Parkinson’s disease. They’re typically signals of another underlying issue, such as an infection, stress, sleep difficulty, or a recent medical procedure. That’s why it’s important to let your doctor know about symptom changes right away.