Can CBD Help Parkinson’s Psychosis?

Can CBD Help Parkinson’s Psychosis?

cbd for parkinson's psychosis

When you know someone suffering from Parkinson’s disease, you know the incredibly hard time they have. You see the decline happening in front of his or her loved ones, and how hard it is to make them cope with life. How to deal with the tremors is specifically hard. It slowly creeps on, and slowly more symptoms like stiffness and rigidness also make it difficult to move and walk. Everything changes, First, it is the writing that looks different, then speaking becomes a problem. Everything slows down and eventually it is just hard to live a meaningful life. Finally, a person gets trapped inside an uncooperative body.

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive nervous system disorder that affects movement. It starts slowly with a barely noticeable tremor in one hand. Eventually, your arms might not swing when you walk. Your face might show little or no expression. Speech becomes soft and slurred, and as it progresses, everything gets worse. Finally, it destroys the mind. The most noticeable signal of Parkinson’s is uncontrollable shaking. But some patients might go a step further and end up with psychotic behavior. At first, it was thought to be due to the medication patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease were taking. But now it is seen as part of the natural progression of the disease.

What is Parkinson’s Disease Psychosis?

Parkinson’s Disease Psychosis is a non-motor symptom of Parkinson’s disease. It causes patients to experience hallucinations and delusions. Diagnosing and treating this stage of Parkinson’s is very complicated. The condition relates to both neurology and psychiatry. Parkinson’s psychosis is therefore known in the medical world as a neuropsychiatric condition.

What Causes Parkinson’s Psychosis?

It is not a hundred percent clear what the cause of this type of psychosis is, but it is believed that certain brain chemicals and receptors could play a role. Dopamine and serotine come to mind. Some of the effects could be caused by:

The side effect of Dopamine Therapy – Dopamine drugs is very common in treating the disease. An increase of dopamine to improve motor symptoms could cause chemical and physical changes in the brain that could lead to hallucination and delusion.

Natural Occurrence of the Disease – As Parkinson’s progress, natural changes happen in the brain that could also lead to hallucination and delusion.

How do you know if there is Parkinson’s Psychosis?

The most prominent symptoms are obviously hallucinations and delusions. Hallucinations have to do with hearing, seeing, experiencing, and sensing something that is not there. Delusions are false believes not based on the reality the patient is surrounded with. Some keywords that a patient might use to describe the symptoms he is suffering from include paranoia, seeing things, hearing things, flashbacks, nightmares, false believes, and generally not being in touch with reality.

What makes it even more difficult to diagnose is that the patient often stays quiet about the experience.

How can CBD help Parkinson’s Psychosis?

Cannabis is such a complete plant with many ingredients that could be used to treat a multitude of conditions. CBD is one of the more known cannabinoids found in the resin of the flower of the plant. There are other cannabinoids and terpenes present that play also an important role in treating diseases and conditions. CBD has a very safe profile and receives, therefore, a lot of attention from researches as an alternative medicinal treatment. It can treat pain-related issues, anxiety, inflammation, and mental issues to name a few. It is gaining favor amongst many people, including professional athletes.

When it comes to Parkinson’s disease, already in 1986, a study found that CBD can reduce uncontrolled tremors in PD.

The Way CBD Works in Parkinson’s Psychosis

Pain Management - One of the symptoms of Parkinson’s that cause a lot of trouble is physical pain. There are studies out there stating that CBD work for pain management. But there are also a significant number of self-reports how cannabis as a whole, not just CBD, helped them to deal with pain. As of yet, some physicians still wait on more evidence-based results. It is not that CBD gets rejected. It is more that physicians want scientific backing to support treatment intervention.

Sleeping Problems – people suffering from Parkinson’s Disease often experience sleeping problems. Some report vivid nightmare experiences and a really difficult time to sleep enough. CBD is found very effective at improving sleep, especially REM sleep which is needed for neurological regeneration.

More Focus on CBD and Parkinson´s Psychosis Research

Especially in the United Kingdom at the moment, there is an intense focus on the role CBD plays in Parkinson’s Psychosis. They hope to find a way for patients to prevent, or at least reduce the severity of hallucinations and delusions, as well as other psychotic symptoms. It has already been well-acknowledged that CBD is an effective antipsychotic.