What causes hallucinations?
Hallucinations are a side effect associated with dopaminergic medicines used to treat Parkinson’s disease motor symptoms.
Hallucinations are an altered perception of how our brain interprets information it receives about our environment, surroundings, senses and/or body sensations. Hallucinations can be visual, auditory or tactile.
The most common type of hallucinations in PD are visual in nature.
They may range from the experience of a simple illusion such as ‘seeing’ a spot on the wall turn into a well formed object such as a spider or they me be more complex and actual visions that do not exist. Sights of people and animals are common hallucinations. A person can have insight into and reason through the fact that a hallucination is not indeed real. In more advance cases, insight is lost and hallucinations are interpreted as real without the ability to reason that they are not grounded in reality.
The risk of experiencing hallucinations if you have Parkinson’s disease increases with the following:
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Visual symptoms are common in Parkinson's disease but are frequently under-diagnosed. The detection of visual symptoms is important for differential diagnosis and patient management. The causes of visual symptoms divides between Parkinson's disease and Parkinson's disease drugs. PD can cause visual disturbances by affecting the muscles of the eye. Parkinson's disease drugs in excess can cause visual hallucinations. Recurring visual complaints emerged as risk factors predictive of the minor forms of hallucinations, but not recurrent complex visual hallucinations.
The most common visual disturbances were found to be:
- Parkinsonism Related Disorders, 2013.
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Treatment includes:
With kind thanks to Monique L. Giroux, MD
Medical Director, Northwest Parkinson's Foundation
Hallucinations are a side effect associated with dopaminergic medicines used to treat Parkinson’s disease motor symptoms.
Hallucinations are an altered perception of how our brain interprets information it receives about our environment, surroundings, senses and/or body sensations. Hallucinations can be visual, auditory or tactile.
The most common type of hallucinations in PD are visual in nature.
They may range from the experience of a simple illusion such as ‘seeing’ a spot on the wall turn into a well formed object such as a spider or they me be more complex and actual visions that do not exist. Sights of people and animals are common hallucinations. A person can have insight into and reason through the fact that a hallucination is not indeed real. In more advance cases, insight is lost and hallucinations are interpreted as real without the ability to reason that they are not grounded in reality.
The risk of experiencing hallucinations if you have Parkinson’s disease increases with the following:
- High levels of dopaminergic medicines. Specific medicines such as dopaminergic agonists, anticholinergic medicines and amantadine are associated with a higher risk of this problem.
- Additive effect of other brain active medicines such as sedatives, sleeping aids, muscle relaxants, narcotic pain medicines and some bladder medicines.
- Cognitive problems, confusion and dementia increases risk of hallucinations associated with Parkinson’s medicines.
- Visual problems such as cataracts, glaucoma and reduced night vision can increase the risk of developing hallucinations especially at night. (Hallucinations are not directly caused by eye problems but reflect how the brain interprets sensory information. However, poor vision does exacerbate this problem in susceptible individuals.)
- Stress can increase the risk – whether emotional, physical or the stress on your body from a medical condition or surgery.
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Visual symptoms are common in Parkinson's disease but are frequently under-diagnosed. The detection of visual symptoms is important for differential diagnosis and patient management. The causes of visual symptoms divides between Parkinson's disease and Parkinson's disease drugs. PD can cause visual disturbances by affecting the muscles of the eye. Parkinson's disease drugs in excess can cause visual hallucinations. Recurring visual complaints emerged as risk factors predictive of the minor forms of hallucinations, but not recurrent complex visual hallucinations.
The most common visual disturbances were found to be:
- double vision (in 18% of the people with Parkinson's disease)
- misjudging objects when walking (in 12%)
- words moving whilst reading (in 17%)
- and freezing in narrow spaces (in 30%), which was almost exclusively found in people with Parkinson's disease.
- The same was true for recurring complex visual hallucinations and illusiions, which were found in 17% of people with PD.
- Recurring visual complaints were found in 43% of people with Parkinson's disease.
- Recurring visual hallucinations were found in 29% of people with PD.
- Parkinsonism Related Disorders, 2013.
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Treatment includes:
- Change or reduction in Parkinson’s medicines and other brain active medicines described above.
- Antipsychotic medicines. Only two antipsychotic medicines are recommended for PD-clozapine and quetiapine. Other antipsychotics can worsen movement problems due their dopamine blocking activity.
- Cognitive enhancing medicines such as Aricept or Exelon if dementia is a problem
- Medical evaluation to insure other medical conditions are not contributing to the problem. Examples include cardiopulmonary disease, thyroid problems, vitamin B12 deficiency, infection, dehydration and kidney disease.
- Lifestyle changes with a focus on stress management and improved sleep.
With kind thanks to Monique L. Giroux, MD
Medical Director, Northwest Parkinson's Foundation