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Parkinson's Disease

Excessive drooling

09/15/2008

Question:

What can be done for excessive drooling?? Doctors in our town unable to help. Parkinson patient is a 73-year-old male.

Answer:

Unfortunately, excessive drooling can be a symptom of Parkinson's disease that is minimally responsive to Parkinsonian medications.

Here are some suggestions that may help:

1) Chewing gum or using hard candy throughout the day to help stimulate swallowing.

2) Medications (such as scopoloamine, Robinul, amitriptyline)that have side effects of dry mouth can sometimes be helpul if tolerated.

3) Botulinum toxin therapy with small injections into the parotid glands appears to be one of the the most effective methods of treating excessive drooling. However, this modality of treatment can be costly and often not approved by an insurance company.

I suggest you discuss this symptom further with the patient's doctor.

For more information:

Go to the Parkinson's Disease health topic, where you can:

Response by:

Punit Agrawal, DO Punit Agrawal, DO
Assistant Professor of Neurology
College of Medicine
The Ohio State University