Of patients with visual perceptual pathology in a given condition, the percentage reporting each symptom category is coded red (> … Figure 4. Caricatures of the deafferentation (CBS), cholinergic (Ach) and serotonergic (5-HT) visual perceptual syndromes. The deafferentation syndrome has three subsyndromic forms shown as light green regions, top = parietal; middle = superior temporal; bottom … The Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical second syndrome (prototypical disorder PD – see refs 39,84,85) differs from the first in the conspicuous absence of simple hallucinations. Patients experience illusions and fully formed hallucinations, typically of mundane figures or animals (caricatured in Figure 4 Ach).

The visual symptoms are often associated with extra-campine and multimodality hallucinations and delusional elaboration. AD,86,87 DLB,88 and peduncular lesions89 are associated with a chemical structure similar syndrome which seems to relate to ascending brainstem neurotransmitter dysfunction, particularly in the cholinergic Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical system14 (see ref 90 for review of cholinergic hypothesis). The third syndrome (prototypical disorder LSD flashback91 – now hallucinogen persisting

perception disorder [HPPD]92) consists of tessellopsia, visual snow, palinopsia, polyopia (multiple copies of an object) and metamorphopsia (caricatured in Figure 4, 5-HT). Patients rarely experience complex visual hallucinations, delusions, or hallucinations in other Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical modalities. The same spectrum of disorders is described in the classical peripheral and central vestibular

lesion literature,93 migraine aura, and migraine aura status (persistent positive visual phenomena),94,95 MDMA,96 and 5-HT2 antagonism.97 Although Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the underlying mechanism of this syndrome is unclear, many of the conditions in which it occurs Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical are linked to the serotonergic system. Figure 5 outlines a treatment algorithm for the three visual perceptual syndromes. For each, it is important to: i) review medication to minimize anticholinergic load; ii) consider whether the syndrome may have been precipitated by concurrent infection (often a urinary tract infection in the elderly); and iii) if necessary, optimize vision. The question of whether to investigate depends largely on the match between the syndrome and clinical context. Hallucinations of a familiar dog in a patient with Oxalosuccinic acid Parkinson’s disease would not warrant further investigation, but hallucinations of grid patterns confined to one hemifield might prompt neuroimaging of the visual pathways and cortex. Similarly, prolonged hallucinations of whispering figures in a patient with macular disease might prompt a psychiatric review, whereas a brief hallucination of an Edwardian tea party would not. CBS may be treated with the reassurance of a likely resolution with time, although patients may be warned that symptoms can re-occur following further visual deterioration.