It’s been estimated that dementia occurs in up to 81 percent of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD).  And it seems that dementia in Parkinson’s bears a striking resemblance to similar issues resulting from Alzheimer’s disease.

Problems accompanying Parkinson’s typically begin with a slowing of thought processes and progress to difficulties with abstract thought, memory, and behavioral issues.  Also, hallucinations, delusions and paranoia may develop.  There are different theories as to what occurs at the cellular level in the brains of Parkinson’s patients.

To understand the situation more fully, studies of rivastigmine (Exelon), a drug used to treat Alzheimer’s dementia, were conducted to determine whether similar medications might also help Parkinson’s patients with dementia.  The findings: rivastigmine resulted in moderate improvement in symptoms of dementia associated with Parkinson’s disease, but also resulted in higher rates of nausea, vomiting, and tremor.

Bottom line: people dealing with Parkinson’s disease  may want to check with their doctors to see whether or not rivastigmine might be a useful option to consider.


For further information: “Rivastigmine for Dementia Associated with Parkinson’s Disease,” Emre, M MD; Aarsland, D MD PhD; Albanese, A MD; Byrne, E  FRCPsych MB ChB; Deuschl, G MD; DeDeyn, P MD PhD; Durif, F MD PhD;  Kulisevsky, J MD PhD; vanLaar, T MD PhD; Lees, A MD; Poewe, W MD; Robillard, A  MD FRCPC; Rosa, M MD; Wolters, E MD PhD; Quarg, P MSc; Tekin, S MD; Lane, R  MD, The New England Journal of Medicine, vol 351 no 24, December 9, 2004.