An antiepileptic drug improves motor symptoms without exacerbating psychiatric symptoms.
In patients with Parkinson disease (PD) and related disorders such as dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), psychotic symptoms can develop, especially as a reaction to the dopaminergic medications necessary to improve motor symptoms. Thus, finding alternative medications to treat motor manifestations without producing psychosis is important. This manufacturer-funded, placebo-controlled, randomized, double-blind, phase-2 study explored the efficacy and safety of zonisamide, an FDA-approved anticonvulsant that has been used in Japan adjunctively for PD, in 158 patients diagnosed with probable DLB (mean age, 75; 59% male).
Fluctuating cognition and visual hallucinations were present in 70% of patients. Patients were on levodopa or a decarboxylase in…
Reviewing Author
DisclosuresRoyaltiesTextbook of Traumatic Brain Injury, 2nd and 3rd editions
Editorial BoardsUpToDate; Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience
Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesNorth American Brain Injury Association (Board Member); National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (Chair of Data Monitoring Safety Board for study of donepezil on cognition after traumatic brain injury)
DisclosuresRoyaltiesTextbook of Traumatic Brain Injury, 2nd and 3rd editions
Editorial BoardsUpToDate; Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience
Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesNorth American Brain Injury Association (Board Member); National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (Chair of Data Monitoring Safety Board for study of donepezil on cognition after traumatic brain injury)