Hallucinations after abrupt withdrawal of oral and intrathecal baclofen

D’Aleo, Giangaetano and Cammaroto, Simona and Rifici, Carmela and Marra, Giuseppe and Sessa, Edoardo and Bramanti, Placido and Di Bella, Paolo (2007) Hallucinations after abrupt withdrawal of oral and intrathecal baclofen. Functional Neurology; New Trends in Interventional Neurosciences, 22 (2). pp. 81-88. ISSN 1971-3274

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Abstract

Since 1977 several cases of hallucinations after abrupt withdrawal of oral baclofen have been described. There are no reports of hallucinations after gradual withdrawal of oral baclofen. No one has ever described visual hallucinations after abrupt interruption of intrathecal baclofen therapy. We describe five personally observed cases of visual hallucinations occurring after sudden interruption of baclofen (in two of these cases, intrathecal baclofen) therapy. The patients were immediately submitted to routine EEG, visual evoked potentials and standard brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A few days later they also underwent polysomnography, fundus oculi examination and brain MRI of the temporal lobe. All these examinations were normal. We hypothesise that these symptoms could be due to biochemical and molecular changes, chiefly in glutamatergic n-methyl-d-aspartate, GABA-A, and GABA-B receptor response, leading to increased excitability and spontaneous activity as a result of chronic use of baclofen

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Baclofen, neuroimaging, neurophysiology, visual hallucinations
Subjects:	600 Tecnologia - Scienze applicate > 610 Medicina e salute (Classificare qui la tecnologia dei servizi medici) > 616 Malattie (classificare qui la Clinica medica, la medicina basata sull'evidenza, la Medicina interna, la Medicina sperimentale) > 616.8 Malattie del sistema nervoso e disturbi mentali (Classificare qui la Neuropsichiatria, la Neurologia) 600 Tecnologia - Scienze applicate > 610 Medicina e salute (Classificare qui la tecnologia dei servizi medici) > 616 Malattie (classificare qui la Clinica medica, la medicina basata sull'evidenza, la Medicina interna, la Medicina sperimentale) > 616.8 Malattie del sistema nervoso e disturbi mentali (Classificare qui la Neuropsichiatria, la Neurologia) > 616.8047548 Sistema Nervoso – Risonanza magnetica nucleare (Classificare qui: Neuroimaging, Neuroimaging funzionale, Cervello - Risonanza magnetica funzionale, Cervello - Risonanza magnetica per immagini)
Depositing User:	Danilo Dezzi
Date Deposited:	29 Feb 2012 10:19
Last Modified:	29 Feb 2012 10:19
URI:	http://eprints.bice.rm.cnr.it/id/eprint/3716

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