Intervening in the neuropsychiatric features of Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

Although Parkinson’s disease is considered a movement disorder, it has a wide range and high prevalence of affective, psychotic, cognitive, behavioral and sleep-related features. To treat such features, agents including antidepressants, anxiolytics, antipsychotics and cognition-enhancing agents are commonly prescribed, although the targeted syndromes are often incompletely understood and controlled studies demonstrating a treatment’s efficacy and tolerability in Parkinson’s disease patients are often lacking. Nevertheless, the available information does suggest the outlines of management methods, pending expanded research to identify optimal strategies specific to Parkinson’s disease.

Keywords::

• cognition
• dementia
• depression
• Parkinson’s disease
• psychiatric
• psychosis

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to acknowledge Michael Feirtag for his editorial assistance in the development of this manuscript.

Disclosure

Daniel Weintraub has received honoraria or grant support from Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Schwarz Pharma and Avanir Pharmaceuticals. Matthew Stern has received honoraria or grant support from Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Vernalis, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, NuPathe and Teva Pharmaceuticals.