People Who Experience Early Hallucinations Are at Risk of Developing Parkinson’s Disease, Cognitive Decline

Some people feel that someone is following them or lurking behind them. Others might take it as pure paranoia, but a new study warned that it could be an onset of Parkinson's Disease.

Hallucination Could Be an Early Sign of Parkinson's Disease

According to researchers, those who exhibit early hallucinations are at significant risk of cognitive loss. The new study indicated that "presence hallucinations" should be treated with far greater seriousness in the context of the illness, Newsweek reported.

Seventy-five Parkinson's patients aged 60 to 70 were studied for the study by researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) and Barcelona's Sant Pau Hospital. To gauge the individuals' brain activity, the researchers conducted interviews. In the five years that followed, the disease advanced more quickly in patients who had experienced hallucinations.

The study's lead authors, Fosco Bernasconi of EPFL's Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Olaf Blanke, Bertarelli chair in cognitive neuroprosthetics and lead at EPFL's Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, told Newsweek in a joint statement that there has been prior research suggesting that complex visual hallucinations in Parkinson's disease are linked to cognitive decline and dementia.

However, because visual hallucinations often only occur in the middle to late stages of the disease, they cannot be used as an early indicator or prediction of dementia, which can sometimes take five years or longer to manifest.

However, an increasing body of research indicates that many 'minor' hallucinations frequently precede complex visual hallucinations.

These discoveries might facilitate an earlier Parkinson's diagnosis.

The diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases frequently occurs when it is too late to treat severe symptoms. To change this, the authors of this study want to identify early warning indications.

These hallucinations could even come before motor symptoms and a Parkinson's disease diagnosis. They, therefore, proposed that "minor" hallucinations might also contribute to detecting cognitive deterioration, according to Blanke and Bernasconi.

They were quite taken aback by how well the data fit together when they combined the presence of these "minor" hallucinations with alterations in frontal brain activity that were also connected to alterations in frontal lobe function. They were surprised to discover this blatant, focused, early involvement of frontal brain alterations in mild hallucinations.

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Hallucination Is Not Always a Sign of Parkinson's Disease

However, Parkinson's Disease is not always indicated by the hallucinations. Other neurodegenerative conditions, such as dementia with Lewy bodies, can also cause them.

Additionally, presence hallucinations have been linked to neurological and mental disorders, as well as to stressful events and even bereavement in healthy people. However, according to Blanke and Bernasconi, they are more prevalent and clinically significant in Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies.

According to WebMD, hallucination could also be a mental illness called schizophrenia, a nervous system issue like Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, or a number of other things. The outlet encouraged those experiencing hallucinations to see a doctor.

The study was published in Nature Mental Health.