dbs, sinament, and permax work for me. they took me off permax 3 years ago.
tried all the others. disaster. get by now with a 10/100 every two hours and
four 50/200 cr's.
i am 57 years old. too young to take a chance? at some point i would take
the permax and watch the heart like they watch my liver now. gwc
----- Original Message -----
From: "Beverly Bashe" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2007 11:55 AM
Subject: Re: heart damage-studies-edited


> This is very worrisome for us, because David has taken permax for many
> years.  I'd be interested in the dosage used in the trials, because he's
> on
> a relatively small daily dosage.  It's the one drug that has helped his
> cognition, and doesn't seem to have any other side effects.  He's so
> sensitive to meds, that it makes me shudder to even think of putting him
> on
> something else.  The dr. tried Requip, but that was a disaster.  What to
> do?
>
> Bev
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "M.Schild" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2007 2:04 AM
> Subject: heart damage-studies-edited
>
>
>> Sorry, the first version went off without editing :-(
>>
>>
>> BOSTON, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Two Parkinson's disease drugs cause the same
>> kind
>> of heart damage that led to the withdrawal of the diet drug combination
>> "fen-phen," according to two studies published on Wednesday.
>> Patients taking the drugs pergolide, developed by Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY.N:
>> Quote, Profile , Research) and sold under the brand name Permax, and
>> cabergoline, developed by Pfizer Inc. (PFE.N: Quote, Profile , Research)
>> and
>> sold under the brand Dostinex, had a sharply higher risk of heart valve
>> damage than those taking other therapies, the studies said.
>> The studies, one of which analyzed the records of 11,417 patients in
>> Britain
>> and one of which tested 245 patients in Italy, reinforce the results of
>> earlier, smaller studies showing that drugs which activate a cellular
>> receptor known as 5-HT2b can cause damage to the heart valve, a serious
>> condition that can lead to heart failure and sudden death.
>>
>> "We recommend that physicians not prescribe drugs that have this
>> biochemical
>> property," said Bryan Roth, a researcher at the University of North
>> Carolina,
>> Chapel Hill, who was not involved in the trials but viewed the data and
>> commented on it in The New England Journal of Medicine, where both
>> studies
>> appeared.
>> Such drugs also include the migraine headache drug ergotamine and the
>> amphetamine derivative known as "ecstasy."
>> Roth said his team, in a separate piece of research that has yet to be
>> published or reviewed by the scientific community, has identified several
>> other big-selling drugs that have until now not been known to activate
>> the
>> 5-HT2b receptor.
>> He declined to reveal the names of the drugs until the research has been
>> published.
>>
>> "We recommend that every drug be screened at this receptor before it goes
>> into humans," Roth told Reuters in an interview. "It costs just pennies
>> per
>> drug for such a screen."
>> The British study showed that patients taking pergolide were 7.1 times
>> more
>> likely to develop heart valve damage than those who took other
>> treatments.
>> Patients taking the highest doses of the drug had a 37 times greater
>> risk.
>> The study showed that patients taking cabergoline were 4.9 times more
>> likely
>> to develop heart valve damage. At higher doses patients were 50.3 times
>> more
>> likely to suffer damage.
>> Both drugs are available in generic form.
>>
>>
>> A second study, conducted in Italy, tested 245 people, of whom 155 had
>> Parkinson's disease. Of the diseased population, one group received
>> pergolide, one group received cabergoline, and one group received an
>> alternative Parkinson's treatment. The non-diseased control group
>> received
>> nothing.
>> The results showed that 23.4 percent of patients taking pergolide and
>> 28.6
>> percent of patients taking cabergoline suffered heart damage, compared to
>> just 5.6 percent in the control group.
>> "These are huge risks," said Roth. He said they were similar to the kind
>> of
>> damage seen with fen-phen, whose main ingredients were withdrawn in 1997
>> and
>> forced the drug-maker Wyeth (WYE.N: Quote, Profile , Research) to take
>> more
>> than $21 billion in charges to cover liabilities.
>> Wyeth's recalled drugs were fenfluramine, or Pondimin, and
>> dexfenfluramine,
>> or Redux. To make fen-phen, one or the other was combined with another
>> drug
>> called phentermine that is still sold by other companies.
>> Wyeth, then called American Home Products, recalled Pondimin and Redux
>> after
>> some of the 6 million Americans who had taken fen-phen developed
>> heart-valve
>> problems.
>> Roth said pergolide is also used to treat restless leg syndrome, a
>> condition
>> in which patients feel a crawling sensation in their legs combined with a
>> need to move them.
>> (Additional reporting by Ransdell Pierson in New York)
>>
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