SAN ANTONIO, Texas. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Visual hallucinations affect up to 75% of Parkinson’s patients, causing them to see people and animals that aren’t really there. Now, medication that targets these hallucinations, through a different neurotransmitter in the brain, is helping one patient who was diagnosed in his 40s.
Adrian Mireles was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in his early 40s.
“It used to take me a good half-hour, before I could get out of bed, after I was awake to get everything settled, so I kinda realized where I was at,” said Adrian.
Then, the tremors would start.
“What people don’t understand — with Parkinson’s, it affects a lot of you. Not just, people think oh, it makes you shake. The shaking is the least of your problems,” Adrian told Ivanhoe.
He struggled to follow conversations. And most unsettling of all, when he drove to work, he began seeing things like a bobcat in the road.
Adrian explained, “And the first couple times, I slammed my brakes, you know. To not hit it, and then got there and it wasn’t there.”
According to the Parkinson’s Foundation, up to 70% of patients suffer hallucinations.
“Hallucinations can be present during the day, at night and can be very disruptive for the day-to-day of these patients. There is always this risk of them losing contact with their reality,” explained Juan Ramirez-Castaneda, M.D., Movement Disorders Neurologist at Movement Disorders Clinic, Director of Deep Brain Stimulation Program, Director of Methodist Outpatient Neurology, and Medical Director at Methodist Physicians.
The doctor prescribed an atypical anti-psychotic drug called Pimavanserin, trade name Nuplazid, which targets serotonin receptors.
“Activating these receptors can help tailor the psychosis or hyperactivity that happens in the brain,” said Dr. Ramirez-Castaneda.
It’s the first antipsychotic that works on the neurotransmitter serotonin, and not dopamine, known to be a cause of Parkinson’s.
Antipsychotics carry strong warning labels and Parkinson’s patients should always check with their doctors to see if the risks outweigh the benefits.
Contributors to this news report include: Donna Parker, Producer; Bruce Maniscalco, Videographer; Roque Correa, Editor.
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Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7116251/
https://www.parkinson.org/understanding-parkinsons/non-movement-symptoms/hallucinations-delusions
https://www.cedars-sinai.org/blog/exploring-the-link-between-dopamine-and-parkinsons-disease.html
https://www.michaeljfox.org/news/nuplazid-pimavanserin
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Deb Kazenelson, MSPH, Executive Director, Corporate Communications
Acadia Pharmaceuticals
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