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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) >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: >> mailto:[log in to unmask] >> In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: > mailto:[log in to unmask] > In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn