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Diagnosis and Treatment of Hallucinations and Delusions in Parkinson’s Disease

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Mental and Behavioral Dysfunction in Movement Disorders

Abstract

Hallucinations and delusions in Parkinson’s disease (PD) have attracted attention because they are common, have important clinical consequences both for patients, their families, and the health care system, and they are treatable. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM IV) (1), a delusion is a false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly sustained despite what almost everyone else believes. Hallucination is a sensory perception that has the compelling sense of reality of a true perception, but that occurs without external stimulation of the relevant sensory organ. The person may or may not have insight in that he or she is having a hallucination. Psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions are the cardinal features of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, schizo-affective disorder, delusional disorder, and brief psychotic disorder. Psychotic symptoms may also occur during the course of delirium or dementias and may be due to a range of other general medical and neurological conditions, including PD.

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Aarsland, D., Larsen, J.P. (2003). Diagnosis and Treatment of Hallucinations and Delusions in Parkinson’s Disease. In: Bédard, MA., Agid, Y., Chouinard, S., Fahn, S., Korczyn, A.D., Lespérance, P. (eds) Mental and Behavioral Dysfunction in Movement Disorders. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-326-2_28

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