New drug helps in Parkinson's disease

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

A clinical trial suggests that rotigotine improves symptoms of early and advanced Parkinson's disease.
Rotigotine is a drug which improves levels of dopamine in the brain through being applied as a patch. As such it should help alleviate the movement disorders seen in Parkinson's disease. Doctors at Innsbruck Medical University, Austria, now report on a clinical trial of the drug in patients with early stage Parkinson's disease. The study, which was placebo controlled, showed an improvement for those on the drug when it came to disease symptoms.

Ritigotine also helped as a therapy additional to levodopa for those with advanced disease. They had fewer days when they were affected by movement disorder symptoms, otherwise known as dyskinesias. Some patients in both trials suffered side effects such as nausea, sleepiness and dizziness.

Source
European Federation of Neurological Societies meeting 19th September 2005

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