You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The use of L-Dopa in Parkinsonism resulted from the discovery of a deficiency of dopamine in the brains of many patients suffering from this disease. Of the patients studied here, approximately twenty per cent have had psychiatric side effects. Most studies indicate that mental changes represent the third most common side effect, following abnormal movements and gastrointestinal symptoms. Psychiatric side effects, in order of frequency, are: confusion, depression, psychosis, hypomania, and hypersexuality. Disorientation, sometimes progressing to delirium, is the most frequently noted side effect. When psychosis occurs, it is usually paranoid in nature, with visual or olfactory hallucinations. Hypomania has been seen in approximately eight per cent of patients reporting mental changes. Whenever hypersexuality has occurred, it has almost always been in association with hypomania. In a trial administration of L-Dopa to a small group of men having primary psychogenic impotence, transitory improvement was noted in half the group. Stress is placed on the variability of response to the administration of this drug.