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This article discusses Mirapex and Requip as non-ergotic dopamine agonist drugs as compared to carbo/levadopa. Years ago I took ergot for migraines and it didn't help. Does anyone know if there is a migraine-ergot-Parkinson's connection. My maternal grandfather, who had PD, also suffered from terrible migraines, which I had too. But in my late 30's and 40's the headaches stopped and I had just the auras until my DBS brain surgeries in 2003. Ray Teva's Azilect Use Dramatically Increases In Second-Line Therapy For The Treatment Of Parkinson's Disease Main Category: Parkinson's Disease Also Included In: Clinical Trials / Drug Trials Article Date: 05 Mar 2009 - 1:00 PST Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms focusing on pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that second-line patient share of MAO-B inhibitors has increased from 14.1 percent to 35.2 percent since last year's report. Most of this increased patient share was driven by growth in the use of Teva's Azilect which is attributed to physicians' growing comfort with the drug and data attesting to its possible neuroprotective (disease-modifying) effects. "Neurologists are likely the driving force behind this increase in Azilect prescription, as only eight percent of surveyed primary care physicians (PCPs) report using the drug," stated Madhuri Borde, Ph.D., analyst at Decision Resources. "In fact, Azilect prescriptions will likely continue to rise in the specialist setting as 55 percent of surveyed neurologists believe that the A Randomized Placebo Controlled Study to Show That Rasagiline May Slow Disease Progression for Parkinson's Disease (ADAGIO) trial results demonstrated Azilect has a disease-modifying effect and will increase their Azilect prescriptions as a result." The new report entitled Treatment Algorithms in Parkinson's Disease also finds that surveyed neurologists and PCPs vary in their prescribing patterns of levodopa/carbidopa and non-ergotic dopamine agonists, which include Boehringer Ingelheim's Mirapex and GlaxoSmithKline's Requip/Requip XL, generics. Survey results show that PCPs rely heavily on levodopa/carbidopa formulations for early treatment of Parkinson's disease whereas neurologists more often turn to non-ergotic dopamine agonists. This difference in treatment patterns indicates a growth opportunity for non-ergotic dopamine agonists among PCPs. "Our survey results indicate that PCPs need to be educated on the advantages of prescribing a non-ergotic dopamine agonist in the place of levodopa/carbidopa first line," added Dr. Borde. "Surveyed neurologists, on the other hand, have become very comfortable prescribing a non-ergotic dopamine agonist ahead of levodopa/carbidopa and some no longer even use the drug first line." About Treatment Algorithm Insight Series Decision Resources combines in-depth primary research with the most extensive claims-based longitudinal patient-level data from IMS Lifelink: Health Plans Claims database to provide exceptional insight into physicians' prescribing trends and the factors that drive therapy product choice, from diagnosis through multiple courses of treatment, for a specific disease. Rayilyn Brown Director AZNPF Arizona Chapter National Parkinson Foundation [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn