My husband has had Parkinsons for many years. I think he has a personality change and is very difficult to live with. He is taking meripex and sinimet. What could be causing the change?

Personality, mood, and mental changes are all possible non-motor symptoms associated with PD. They can also be side effects of Mirapex. Although it is certainly possible that his changes are PD or drug related, it is not possible for anyone on this site to diagnose an actual cause. I strongly suggest you discuss this with your husband's neurologist.

Good luck!

I think PD changes everyone it affects...think of the pain, the limitations, the constant keeping on a pill schedule which dictates when/what you eat, all the time....the loss of function despite everything you try to do to stop it, apathy, balance issues, dizziness, nausea, constipation and then incontinence of all things, and on and on. If you are having a hard time dealing with it, go to the PD caregiver forum, the site is myparkinsons.org I think, or something like that.

It's possible Mirapex may be at work, too, though, so ask your neuro about that. If he suggests getting off of Mirapex, good luck: we have tried three times and failed every time. I have read it is harder to quit Mirapex than it is to quit heroin. I can't speak to whether its harder than quitting heroin, fortunately, but can agree that trying to quit Mirapex is darn near impossible.....unless you can take some morphine for the withdrawal, and that puts you right back onto another drug. The irony.

I was dx'd ten years, took meds for six years before quitting them in 2009. In my experience personality changes are a consequence of the meds, not the pd. Off meds I struggle with physical symptoms but I am myself, healthy in mind.

You are not alone! My husband's personality traits have become extreme. I agree with both the above posters: it can be both the meds and the disease. I have watched my husband change moods with med changes to the point of hallucinations. And the loss of functions is causing his to stubbornly take chances that result in numerous falls sending him to the ER and making him so sore he cannot get up with my help. He also sustained burns and cellulitis. Since he will not stay seated long enough for me to leave the room I finally placed him in a personal care home this week for respite...for both of us. I hope you will consider this. It is giving me rest and clearing my mind enough to start to make some hard decisions about how to go forward. Let us know how you are. We all need support!

It is the mirapex!!!! i was on this med and I don't know how but I quit cold turkey! It is a well known fact of the severe side effects of this medication as well as the other agonists although I cannot speak to all of them except mirapex and "the patch". I was moody, abusive, compulsive, raging sex drive, obsessive.



Agonists boost the dopamine. Might I suggest weaning off the mirapex and increasing the l-dopa.

I have had PD for 16 yrs, take 1 levodopa an hour. Would not take an agonist if you paid me.

Could you please tell me more about this? This is ruining my marriage and I would like to try and help him.

I was on Mirapex in 2008 and had a horrid time with it: panic attack, random falling asleep, lack of focus, no humor, nausea, obsessive behavior, lots of fun stuff. My near switched me to ReQuip XL with no transition problems at all. I was on Requip XL until the pharmacist switched to a generic and I was allergic to that, nausea again and wild tremors. Switched to Neupro for a long while, then added Sinemet last May, 2014 and went back to RequipXL (not generic) as it is substantially cheaper than Neupro and has no chemical burns on the application spot.

The take away point is that we are all different and the docs give us the meds based on our reactions. It's often a game of educated guessing until you arrive at tolerable symptoms and then that will only last for so long as your body keeps on changing.

Best wishes.

never mind.