“Honey, Did You See That Squirrel in the Living Room?”
Visual hallucinations can be a common occurrence in people with Parkinson’s disease. Here’s why and what to do about them.
May 14, 2021
Out of the corner of your eye, you see a small, shadowy form. You know that nothing’s really there, but you can’t deny that you saw something. For the sizable number of people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) who develop hallucinations, this is often the first type of false vision they’ll see.
“The earliest form [are] shadows in the periphery of your vision,” says Barbara Changizi, M.D., a neurologist who specializes in treating movement disorders such as Parkinson’s at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center in Columbus. “That will be the first sign that something is starting to creep up.”