Aripiprazole can improve apraxia of eyelid opening in Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

We herein report three cases of Parkinson’s disease associated with difficulty in eyelid opening, referred to as apraxia of eyelid opening (AEO), which improved after aripiprazole treatment. In case 1, aripiprazole was administered as a psychiatric treatment. It proved to be effective in AEO with blepharospasm. In case 2 and case 3, the patients experienced AEO without blepharospasm, and a significant improvement was observed after aripiprazole treatment. In this study, the aripiprazole dosage ranged between 3 and 9 mg/day. This is the first report of aripiprazole as a potentially effective treatment for AEO in Parkinson’s disease.