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Archives of Neurology, Volume 62(4), April 2005, p 601–605 Sex Differences in Clinical and Genetic Determinants of Levodopa Peak-Dose Dyskinesias in Parkinson Disease: An Exploratory Study This published study has shown that "age, female sex, body weight, Hoehn-Yahr score, age at onset of PD, duration of the disease, duration of levodopa treatment, and levodopa dose were predictors for the appearance of PDD (peak dose dyskinesias)" and all i can say, being early onset, female, 41 and on the lighter side, is thank goodness I didn't take any medication for the first 5 or so years, and then when i started, i was with a doctor who didn't even consider putting me on levodopa. chances are that if i had gone on levodopa at that point, by now i would be experiencing dyskinesias and on/off swings - so if there is anyone out there who fits these criteria, you might want to think twice about levodopa. If anyone is interested in the whole article, please let me know and i will email it to you. In the meantime, here is the whole 'results' paragraph: Of the 215 examined patients, 105 (48.8%) exhibited PDD and 110 (51.2%) did not. Only 8 patients with observed PDD on the levodopa test did not report dyskinesias in their medical history, whereas all the patients without observed PDD did not historically report dyskinesias. Thus, the positive predictive value of PDD observed on the levodopa test with regard to the historically reported dyskinesias was 92%, and the negative predictive value was 100%. Clinical details of patients with dyskinetic and nondyskinetic PD are given in Table 1. Subjects with dyskinesias were younger, had a female-sex preponderance, and weighed less than patients without dyskinesias; moreover, patients with PDD were more disabled as measured by the Hoehn-Yahr scale, 12 had an earlier age at onset of PD and a longer duration of disease, were treated for a longer period with levodopa, and took a larger daily levodopa dose than patients without PDD. Univariate logistic regression analysis showed that ag! e, female sex, body weight, Hoehn-Yahr score, age at onset of PD, duration of the disease, duration of levodopa treatment, and levodopa dose were predictors for the appearance of PDD. mackenzie __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn http://mail.yahoo.com