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Having Dementia, Parkinson's, Gets Severe Stomach Pain And Fainting Spells. What Could Be Causing This?
Question: My wife has dementia and parkinsons. She also has rather severe pain in her stomach and has fainting spells that last fainting spells that last for 5-10 seconds. My 4 or 5 doctors that see her cannot determine what causes the pain and fainting spells. If I knew her diseases caused this I could handle it better. What would do?
Hi,
Thank you for posting your query.
Following possibilities exist regarding the causes of her symptoms:
1. Fainting episodes could be either seizures or syncope.
2. In seizures, the person can lose consciousness for a brief period. This is often due to lack of blood flow to brain (ischemia) in older people. Some complex partial seizures can also cause stomach pain. MRI of brain and EEG can help in further diagnosis.
3. Syncope is due to decreased cardiac output and low blood pressure that leads to fainting. This always occurs in upright posture (sitting or standing) and never occurs in lying down position. An evaluation by HUTT (head up tilt test) can confirm or exclude this condition.
4. If she is on levodopa for parkinsons disease (PD), it can cause postural drop in BP leading to fainting. Stomach pain is also a side effect of levodopa.
5. In long duration PD, patients can have dysfunction of autonomic nervous system, which also can cause her symptoms.
I hope it helps. Please get back if you have any more queries.
Best wishes,
Dr Sudhir Kumar MD DM (Neurology) XXXXXXX Consultant Neurologist
Thank you for posting your query.
Following possibilities exist regarding the causes of her symptoms:
1. Fainting episodes could be either seizures or syncope.
2. In seizures, the person can lose consciousness for a brief period. This is often due to lack of blood flow to brain (ischemia) in older people. Some complex partial seizures can also cause stomach pain. MRI of brain and EEG can help in further diagnosis.
3. Syncope is due to decreased cardiac output and low blood pressure that leads to fainting. This always occurs in upright posture (sitting or standing) and never occurs in lying down position. An evaluation by HUTT (head up tilt test) can confirm or exclude this condition.
4. If she is on levodopa for parkinsons disease (PD), it can cause postural drop in BP leading to fainting. Stomach pain is also a side effect of levodopa.
5. In long duration PD, patients can have dysfunction of autonomic nervous system, which also can cause her symptoms.
I hope it helps. Please get back if you have any more queries.
Best wishes,
Dr Sudhir Kumar MD DM (Neurology) XXXXXXX Consultant Neurologist
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
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