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I'm not sure how to actually reply to a thread, but here is a little bit of info about Azilect. My husband has taken 1 mg for 2 years without observing any side effects, and little, if any, benefit. We asked a researcher in New Haven if this drug has been shown to be neuroprotective and he gave an interesting response. Apparently when Tevo was doing research, a number of researchers encouraged them to do SPECT scans before and after on all study participants, so that they could see if taking the drug actually slows the death of the neurons. With a SPECT scan they can actually tell if dopamine producing cells have been depleted, and it is an excellent way to diagnosis PD. Teva refused to do this, probably because they figured if they can prove it helps symptoms, that's enough to sell the drug and why open a possible can of worms. The FDA does not allow them to claim neuroprotection for Azilect. So even though the symptoms of PD seem a little better with Azilect (and not ! a lot for most people) it doesn't prove that it is neuroprotective. As an example of how this can be, the doctor mentioned another drug that although it did improve the target symptoms somewhat, it actually hastened the disease progress when they did scans. He does not think that Azilect hastens the neuronal death, but he says that we just don't know because there were no scans included in the clinical trials. And he does think it may offer neuro protection, but at this point it's impossible to know for sure unless clinical trials include scans. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn