idiopathic parkinson’s disease and schizophrenia: dilemma in diagnosis and treatment of a case

The relationship between schizophrenia and idiopathic parkinson’s disease is still not clear and rare when they coexist. diagnosing coexisting schizophrenia and idiopathic parkinson’s disease is a chal-lenge, especially in developing countries due to lack of experts and advance imaging facilities. treatment options are also limited. a 58- year- old male was admitted due to relapse of psychotic symptoms following non-compliance to antipsychotic medications. the patient was previously diag-nosed with schizophrenia and later developed parkinson’s disease while non-compliant to antipsy-chotic medications. while the patient was at our center, his detailed history was taken and general physical examination was done to distinguish parkinson’s disease from anti-psychotic induced ex-trapyramidal symptoms. all the routine investigations were within normal limits. this case report highlights the clinical factors that help make a distinction and help use appropriate drugs to manage schizophrenia with comorbid parkinson’s disease in developing countries, where lack of precise di-agnostic imaging modalities interferes in making a conclusive diagnosis.