Halting Hallucinations: A Discussion of Management Strategies for Parkinson’s Disease Psychosis

In this podcast episode, Marwan Sabbagh, MD, FAAN, and Marta San Luciano, MD, MS, FAAN, have a conversation about Parkinson’s disease psychosis (PDP). Their discussion provides information on the disease itself—covering symptoms, risk factors, and mechanism—before moving into clinical strategies for diagnosis and disease and comorbidity management. The experts emphasize the importance of ruling out an underlying cause of psychosis before making a diagnosis of PDP, calling out common culprits such as urinary and respiratory tract infections. Following diagnosis, they comment on the value of implementing nonpharmacologic measures in tandem with pharmacologic interventions for PDP. Within the discussion of pharmacologic interventions, Drs Sabbagh and San Luciano give a well-rounded explanation of patient and medication factors they consider when choosing a treatment for their patients with PDP, including patient outcomes they have experienced in clinical practice. Rounding out the podcast, the experts touch on their approach to managing the very common comorbidity of sleep disturbances in patients with PDP.