What are Anticholinergic antiparkinson agents?
Anticholinergic antiparkinson agents or acetylcholine antagonists block the muscarinic acetylcholine receptors and cholinergic nerve activity. Activation of muscarinic receptors has an excitatory effect, opposite to that of dopaminergic activation, so suppression of the effects of acetylcholine compensates for a lack of dopamine in Parkinson’s disease. Acetylcholine and dopamine have to be carefully balanced for proper body movement. Anticholinergic agents create a better balance between acetylcholine and dopamine. Anticholinergic agents are used to treat patients with Parkinson’s disease who have tremor.
Anticholinergics can be helpful for tremor and may ease dystonia (painful cramping) associated with wearing-off or peak-dose effect, however, they have little effect on other symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Potential adverse effects include blurred vision, dry mouth, constipation and urinary retention.
Almost every antiparkinsonian agent, including levodopa, dopamine agonists, MAO B inhibitors, anticholinergics, and amantadine, can produce hallucinations, mostly visual (Burn and Tröster, 2004). They are considered benign when insight is preserved.
Cholinergic medications are a category of pharmaceutical agents that act upon the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, the primary neurotransmitter within the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). There are two broad categories of cholinergic drugs: direct-acting and indirect-acting.
