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Debbie White asked if other PWPs experienced mental confusion:

From time to time my husband has episodes of seeing people who are not there (or at
least not visible to me.) More often he sees cats sitting around or sleeping on his
bed. He recognizes that these are results of his medication and rather enjoys these
visitors. I don't get alarmed as long as he recognizes the apparations as unreal. In
the past he had a serious hallucinatory event which involved "fighting"  imaginary
vandals who he thought had invaded our home. The result was a trashed kitchen and a
trip to the ER. The cause was a newly prescribed medication for muscle cramps. It was
discontinued and that dreadful behavior has never returned.

The doctor needs to know about this problem to determine if this is a problem that
can be treated with an adjustment in medication dosage or if it is a symptom with a
different cause. My husband has experienced 14 years of slowly advancing PD since
diagnosis, most of them relatively benign re PD, but now we are coping with episodes
of confusion which distress me far more than the infrequent hallucinations.

From the letters here and on the CARE list, it is,unfortunately, not uncommon for mental
confusion to add to the distressing symptoms in advanced PD. Not every PWP is affected,
and for many the episodes are transitory and seem to be related to outside events. In
my husband's case they seem to be affiliated with the motility of his colon.

Martha Rohrer CG for Neal, 79/14
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