Zonisamide for seizures in Parkinson's disease with dementia

Zonisamide (ZNS) is a sulphonamide antiepileptic drug (AED) used to treat epilepsy around the world. Recent studies suggested that ZNS is an effective treatment for motor and nonmotor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD) (for a review). However, only one randomized, double-blind, multicentre, placebo-controlled study conducted in Japan demonstrated the efficacy of ZNS as add-on administration in treating motor symptoms in PD patients, and most observations relating to the effectiveness of ZNS for PD symptoms have been made in Japan, where the drug was originally synthesized and released in March 2009 as an antiparkinsonian agent. Here we report the case of a Caucasian 78 year-old male patient with longstanding PD and dementia, who came to our attention because he developed nocturnal seizures; ZNS treatment significantly improved both his epilepsy and PD, without affecting cognitive functions.