The impact of levodopa on quality of life in patients with Parkinson disease.
From the Movement Disorder Clinic, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA.
BACKGROUND:: Parkinson disease (PD) is associated with a progressive decline in patient quality of life (QoL), because of motor and nonmotor manifestations of PD and treatment-related side effects. REVIEW SUMMARY:: Treatment with carbidopa/levodopa-the current gold standard therapy-improves QoL in the short term, but gains are not maintained over a long term. Long-term treatment is associated with symptom re-emergence (end-of-dose "wearing off") and development of dyskinesia, which may have an adverse impact on QoL. CONCLUSIONS:: Levodopa (LD; combined with carbidopa) remains the gold standard for symptomatic treatment of PD, but long-term treatment is associated with complications that may adversely affect QoL. Recent studies have suggested that the addition of a catechol-O-methyltransferase inhibitor may improve QoL through the reduction of some of the motor complications of LD therapy. Further studies are required to determine the full effects of this as well as other treatments that are used to manage LD-associated complications on QoL.
PMID: 20220441 [PubMed - in process]
PMID: 20220441 [PubMed - in process]
関連論文
- An open-label evaluation of the tolerability and safety of Stalevo (carbidopa, levodopa and entacapone) in Parkinson's disease patients experiencing wearing-off.
- Long-term care of Parkinson's disease. Strategies for managing "wearing off" symptom re-emergence and dyskinesias.
- Role of the pharmacist in the effective management of wearing-off in Parkinson's disease.
- [Direct switch from conventional levodopa to stalevo (levodopa/carbidopa/entacapone) improves quality of life in Parkinson's disease: results of an open-label clinical study]



























