Medication for Parkinson's Disease and Personality Changes?

Ironically enough the medical director at the hospital where I work just brought up in a meeting that there have been updates just recently that he read. The article states that studies show that the drugs used to treat Parkinson tremors show little or no effectivness.
As a nursing home admin. this does not surprise me--often people are too afraid to stop or not start a drug out of guilt or fear. anyway, if you have an open minded Dr.--I would request that they seek out this information and evaluate it with you and your family to see if it might be an option for your mom and her particular condition. Best wishes and Happy Thanksgiving.

Hi A.,
I often work with patients who have Parkinson's Disease--I'm a speech pathologist. As another writer mentioned, the progression of the disease can/does include dementia, which can take many forms. This can be impulsivity, forgetfulness, restlessness, and many many other symptoms. It would be a really good idea for you to go along with your mom, if you can, to her MD appts--especially to see her neurologist. Good luck to you.

A. - while I don't have any personal experience with Parkinsons, I know that diet and nutrition have a lot to do with the degenerative diseases that we see today. A good friend of mine is a chiropractor in Eagan and they deal with many, many unusual cases. One reason is because he is a neurologist and a chiropractor. He has a great handle on how the body works and has integrated the brain and body together. Today, most medical doctors have a specialty and they only deal with one issue. They don't deal with the body and brain as a whole.

If you're interested in learning more about this chiropractic office, contact me and I'll get you their information.

All the best to you,

D.

Yes some Parkinson's meds can have some odd side effects and the disease itself can do strange things to a person's mind. My best advice to you would be to go with her to her neurologist's appt, and if she doesn't have one coming up, maybe schedule one and go along to discuss your concerns, especially where they concern gambling and impulsive buying where there was a large purchase involved. Hopefully her doctor can help you. And if she doesn't have a neurologist involved in her care, try to find her one that has experience in treating Parkinson's for her benefit and yours. Best of luck to you and your family with this tough time!
C.

My aunt is also suffering from Parkinson's. It is such a frustrating exhausting disease. The personality changes have been extremely difficult to deal with. She will go off on a tangent for close to an hour when she is angry about something. She just doesnt seem to care about how the things she says is hurtful to others. She is constantly bad mouthing those of us trying to help her stay out of a nursing home. She just doesnt seem to have a filter at all and she has this sense of entitlement recently that is mind boggling. Like we owe her our time and the sacrifices we make to care for her and with that, she is extremely demanding. She tries to help around the house at times but ends up making more work for the rest of us. She will put nuts and bolts in the food processor and fill dish soap bottle with water.

It's not so much the meds but the progression of her disease. I worked for a while in a nursing home where we had a resident who suffered Parkinson's disease. At that time he was on meds like your mom. What I did see was a man who became a changed person. He started seeing things that weren't there, thought everyone was out to get him and the sadist of all, he thought that he wife was having affairs while he was in the home. This all happened in a matter of a few short months and there wasn't a thing that he med could do to prevent it. We were all told that it was part of the disease. With the new research that has been going on and the new meds, I'd have her doctor do a new evaluation on her and make sure that you go along with her so that you can tell him what's been going on in her every day life. She won't remember because on the disease.