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Erika, Welcome to our group. I am a psychiatrist retired with PD. Unfortunately paranoia is not an uncommon thing with PWP's who are fairly advanced. It usually is the result of inadvertent over-medication. Simply put schizophrenia is an illness in which the primary manifestations are related to too much Dopamine. Dopamine blockers are used and this creates a reversible drug induced Parkinson's-like syndrome. When PWP are given standard neuroleptics (antipsychotics) their PD gets worse. By the same token when PWP are given too much of agonists (drugs that mimic in their actions dopamine) or l-dopa they can develop a reversible psychosis not unlike schizophrenia. This used to create a terrible problem for us. To treat this psychosis we would either have to lower the PD meds or give a drug which would make the PD worse. Fortunately, several drugs have come out in the past few years that work around the problem. Clozaril(clozepine) in small doses can make a significant difference in PWP. It does have some small risk (about 1%) of aplastic anemia which if not caught can be fatal. There are other drugs recently on the market which probably work as well without the side effect. Serroquel, and sometimes Respiridone), and I believe one other can be quite useful in psychosis with PD patients. I would suggest first contacting the neurologist and inform him of the symptom. He should react positively by giving either a good reason why not to treat and a careful med decrease (or change) or prescription of one of these drugs. Good luck and keep us informed about the outcome. Charlie John Lawley wrote: > Hi, my name is Erika.I am a non Parkensonian looking to get a better > understanding/more information.Our brother-in-law (55), of whom we are > very fond, is in a fairly advanced stage of PD.Over the last half year > or so, he has had mild episodes of paranoia, which have now aggrevated > to a stage where he is afraid to eat, because he thinks that his food > has been tampered with to harm him. He feels at times that people are > colluding against him. He has lost a frightful lot of weight. It also > means that it is very difficult for him to trust his close family, his > doctor etc. My question is: Is this a "normal" symptom of the disease > in some parkensonians, or can it be brought about by the medication?If > it is likely to be the medication, does anyone have experience with a > particular medication being worse than other producing paranoia?Hoping > that there are people out there willing to share their experience of > paranoia. With thanks in > advance, > Erika. -- ****************************************************************************************** Charles T. Meyer, M.D. Middleton (Madison), Wisconsin [log in to unmask] ******************************************************************************************