Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors (AChEI's) for the treatment of visual hallucinations in schizophrenia: a review of the literature.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Visual hallucinations occur in various neurological diseases, but are most prominent in Lewy body dementia, Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia. The lifetime prevalence of visual hallucinations in patients with schizophrenia is much more common than conventionally thought and ranges from 24% to 72%. Cortical acetylcholine (ACh) depletion has been associated with visual hallucinations; the level of depletion being related directly to the severity of the symptoms. Current understanding of neurobiological visual processing and research in diseases with reduced cholinergic function, suggests that AChEI's may prove beneficial in treating visual hallucinations. This offers the potential for targeted drug therapy of clinically symptomatic visual hallucinations in patients wit

SUBMITTER: Patel SS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2940862 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature