Niacin improved rigidity and bradykinesia in a Parkinson's disease patient but also caused unacceptable nightmares and skin rash–a case report
Abstract
A patient with Parkinson's disease taking levodopa/carbidopa, selegiline, buproprion, aspirin and niacin had decreased rigidity and bradykinesia when his niacin dose was steadily escalated for treatment of high triglycerides, but ultimately the patient could not tolerate niacin because of severe nightmares and skin rash. If further research can reproduce this patient's initial beneficial experience while avoiding the adverse effects, niacin could be a useful adjunctive agent for Parkinson's disease, either population-wide or in a pharmacogenomically defined set of responders.
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In one 78-year-old male PD patient, 500 mg niacin twice daily improved rigidity and bradykinesia, while 1,000 mg twice daily caused severe nightmares and skin rash.
“500 mg NA twice a day improved rigidity and bradykinesia, while a higher dose at 1,000 mg twice a day produced severe nightmares and skin rash”
From NAD+ in Brain Aging and Neurodegenerative Disorders (2019) · cites this paper as Alisky, 2005
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- Authors
- Alisky, J. M.
- Venue
- Nutritional Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2005-10
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 5-6
- Pages
- 327-329
- ISSN
- 1028-415X (ISSN-L)
- 1476-8305
- OpenAlex
- W2045877422
- Cited by
- 38
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 4 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 0.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Nutritional Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Parkinson's Disease Mechanisms and Treatments
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neurological diseases and metabolism
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Nuclear Receptors and Signaling
- Keywords
- nicotinic acid, Parkinson's disease, rigidity, bradykinesia, nightmares, rash, adverse drug reactions, levodopa/carbidopa, selegiline, adjunctive therapy, pharmacogenomics
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Dreams, Exanthema, Humans, Male, Motivation, Muscle Rigidity, Niacin, Parkinson Disease, Hypertriglyceridemia, Hypokinesia
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