2021-08-01
Rivastigmine for minor visual hallucinations in Parkinson's disease
Publication
Publication
Brain and Behavior , Volume 11 - Issue 8
<p>Background: Visual hallucinations are common in patients with Parkinson's disease and represent probably the major independent predictor for cognitive deterioration and nursing home placement. Objective: To investigate if treatment of minor visual hallucinations in Parkinson's disease with rivastigmine delays the progression to psychosis. Methods: A multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted which aimed to recruit 168 patients with Parkinson's disease reporting minor visual hallucinations 4 weeks before it. Important exclusion criteria were Parkinson's disease dementia, current delirium, and treatment with antipsychotics or drugs that have significant anti-cholinergic side effects. Subjects were randomized to rivastigmine capsules, 3–6 mg twice a day, or placebo for 24 months. The primary outcome was the time to Parkinson's disease psychosis, which was defined as the need to start with antipsychotics. Results: The trial was stopped prematurely because of slow recruitment. Ninety-one patients were randomized: 46 patients were assigned to rivastigmine and 45 patients to placebo. No effect of rivastigmine could be demonstrated on the transition time to psychosis or dementia during the 24-month follow-up period. After 6 months of study treatment, cognition, mood, motor performance, and non-motor performance did not differ significantly between the rivastigmine-group and the placebo-group. Conclusions: Because the study was terminated early, it was insufficiently powered to properly evaluate the primary outcome. The limited data of the study favor a wait and see approach instead of early treatment with rivastigmine in PD patients with minor VH.</p>
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| doi.org/10.1002/brb3.2257, hdl.handle.net/1765/135971 | |
| Brain and Behavior | |
| Organisation | Erasmus MC: University Medical Center Rotterdam |
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other individuals of the CHEVAL Study Group, Tom J.M. van Mierlo, Elisabeth M.J. Foncke, B Post, Ben A. Schmand, Bastiaan R. Bloem, … Michel H. Hof. (2021). Rivastigmine for minor visual hallucinations in Parkinson's disease. Brain and Behavior, 11(8). doi:10.1002/brb3.2257 |
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