[Jim091866]

From what I know these two diseases are at opposite ends of the spectrum, PD with a lack of dopamine and schizophrenia too much dopamine. I wonder if they could exist in the same person?

[Bob Dawson]

Originally Posted by Jim091866

From what I know these two diseases are at opposite ends of the spectrum, PD with a lack of dopamine and schizophrenia too much dopamine. I wonder if they could exist in the same person?

I think schizophrenia is over sold; that the word is generic and out-dated; used for anyone who is some kind of a nutcase, but who is hard to fathom, with complex responses to the world. I am not sure what that word really means. I do not believe the Jeckell-Hyde story, from Edgar Allen Poe - where there are two personalities that exist in the same person without being aware of each other. I think that is just Hollywood making a monster; it's Poe having fun giving us nightmares. (I never got over "The Pit and the Pendulum". What a nightmare.)
But, let's say, supposing that you have an over-active imagination, and your self-hood seems to be composed of many layers that barely hang together, and you speak from multiple points of view, as if you could live the same scene several different ways, sometimes even with different voices, it borders on another silly definition, called multiple personality. Again, multiple personality is another Frankenstein boogeyman to scare people. It is not really a multiple personality; it is a personality that accumulated multiple experiments of the self; that retained personalities instead of out-growing them, and that IS their personality.
Everybody has all the symptoms of multiple personality; especially when talking to themselves, just as everyone has all the symptoms of Parkinson`s. It's just that some people have the symptoms to a radically different degree. That's us.
So I do not know if pwp can also be schizo; a word which is used as a scare-crow, but in general, PWP are nuts. Pleasant nuts. But nuts.

Tremors in the hands. Stiff joints. & etc. The physical twitches we allow people to see, and they think that's all it is. And we thought we made great progress in having it re-named as a movement disorder.

That it is. But the shaking and the twitches and the freezing and the loss of balance and the whole physical disaster is a piece of cake compared to the mental and emotional and psychological assault of the disease.
I have not really answered the question, and I don't know about dopamine being plus or minus; especially when I am "Off" in a stressful situation; I shake off the chair, since 2004, and for the life of me, I still cannot tell whether i have over-dosed or under-dosed, which every druggie should know.

[Conductor71]

Originally Posted by Jim091866

From what I know these two diseases are at opposite ends of the spectrum, PD with a lack of dopamine and schizophrenia too much dopamine. I wonder if they could exist in the same person?

Jim,

I have been fascinated of late by this link too. What I learned recently is really amazing.

To answer your question, yes, it can exist in the same person through medication. For instance, if we are on too much dopamine replacement we can get hypomanic and hallucinate or have what med professionals call a "psychotic episode". At the same time, a Schizophrenic patient may experience PD like symptoms due the medication they take which lowers dopamine levels.

The remarkable thing is that many cases exist of schizo patients who have not yet taken any drugs for their condition reporting movement abnormalities including Parkinsonism and dyskinesia! Here is a current review:


Spontaneous movement disorders in antipsychotic-naive patients with first-episode psychoses: a systematic review.

Interesting how not one researcher think there is a connection!!?!


Laura