Parkinson's disease is often characterised by movement symptoms such as rigidity and bradykinesia, however, there are a number of non-motor symptoms that can have a significant impact on quality of life. One of the most common non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease is visual hallucinations (where someone sees things that don't exist outside their mind). . Recent findings led to the approval of a drug called Pimavanserin as a treatment for PD psychosis in the USA. Based on other recent studies, we believe that Saracatinib, a drug that interacts within the same system as Pimavanserin, is a potential treatment for PD psychosis. Saracatinib has shown to reduce the intensity of the psychedelic effect induced by psilocybin (a naturally occurring psychedelic found in psilocybe mushrooms) and attenuate social cognition and brain changes in healthy volunteers. The aim of this study is to test the effects of 14 days dosing of saracatinib or placebo on 30 volunteers with PD psychosis. We aim to to use neuroimaging combined with psychopharmacology to provide evidence that a putative new treatment approach can modulate abnormal visual cortex activation in patients with PD psychosis. If positive, this proof of mechanism study would provide a strong platform to pursue symptom modification studies with Saracatinib.
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Difference between study drug and placebo in BOLD activity in the ventral visual stream during visual recognition vs. the control task measure using fMRI
Timeframe: 2 months (two treatment arms)