I was diagnosed with PD a little over 4 years ago. I took deprenyl (10
mg/day) alone for the first two years and then added sinemet (I now take one
25-100 CR three-times-a-day). About a year ago I started taking in addition
Prozak (20 mg) per day. I am still reacting generally well to the drugs.
I have a sleep-disorder that may have predated my taking sinemet, but it
seems to be occurring with greater frequency recently and I am interested in
knowing if others have a similar problem. In the last two years on about 8
occasions I have had a vivid dream which results in a behavioral act. For
example, in one dream I was following with my eyes an automobile traveling
down the street until it turned on a street and moved out of sight. I
walked to a position where I could see the automobile, and when I did I saw
that someone was pointing a rifle at me; at that point I jumped to the
ground to avoid being shot and woke up finding that I had fallen (jumped?)
out of bed. A similar dream I have had on certain occasions in which I was
surrounded by attackers. In the dream I vigorously kicked out at the
attackers; my wife woke me up as I was vigorously kicking the blankets at
the foot of the bed. (The being-attacked theme of these dreams may derive
from having been robbed at gunpoint to the head about 6 years ago.)
Concerning the dreams: They were vivid and somewhat detailed. I would
infer that they occurred during REM sleep). I was not particularly
disturbed after the dream; I didn't wake up sweating and in fear. There
seemed to be thematic elements of the dream prior to the behavioral action;
this leads me to infer that the dream in some way caused the behavior, not
vice versa.
Hartmann, I am told, in his book the Nightmare, states that l-dopa
increases the vividness of dreams, sometimes resulting in nightmares. I
further understand that a condition, REM Sleep Behavior Disorder, is now
recognized; in this condition people seem to act out their dreams, which is
normally impossible because REM sleep, during which the most vivid dreaming
occurs, is accompanied by paralysis.
I would be interested in knowing if there is any general association
between the dream acting out that I appear to do and PD (or the drugs used
to treat PD).
Allan Netick - [log in to unmask]
