Question

1. Based on a patient’s symptoms and some laboratory tests, a patient is diagnosed as having insufficient dopamine release from a processing area dealing with movement. The patient is prescribed L-dopa and although the movement problems improve, the patient starts to “hear dead people”. The dose of the patient’s medication is adjusted and the patient becomes essentially symptom free. What were the patient’s initially symptoms? What area was affected? What is the normal function of this area? What would be the name given for the original diagnosis of this condition? What name could be given to the condition that was induced by the medication (the one that made the patient hear things that were not there)? What system did this belong to?

Answer 1

These initial symptoms are known as auditary hellucination.Hellucinations  are most often caused by high levels of dopamine in the brain.

L-dopa treatment have the potential to bring on psychosis because they increase the levels of dopamine in the brain and lower the levels of acetylcholine. This altering of brain chemicals is necessary to improve motor control, but can sometimes inadvertently bring about hallucinations.

During auditory hallucinations (AVH), patients demonstrated a significant activation of the supplementary motor area, anterior cingulum, medial superior frontal area and cerebellum. Activation was also observed in the left superior frontal area, right superior temporal pole and right orbitofrontal region.