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On Jan. 4 Manfred Heiderich wrote: >I have several questions: > >1. My symptoms are mild. I feel hardly handicapped at all. Why then should >I start drug treatment (with Sinemet CR)? My understanding is that no PD >drug (with the possible exception of Selegiline) actually checks the >progress of the disease; they merely mask the symptoms.... > We, too, asked this question. Results for us, was that Jim is taking seligiline, for the reason above (sorry, Brian), and started on Mirapex in August. After slow upward titration on Mirapex, he seems pretty stable, and we don't see much in any worsening of the PD symptoms--that is, he has tremors under stress, either emotional or physical (like sneezing, coughing or carrying something). They rarely appear at rest, and are certainly very manageable. The only other problem, aside from fatigue, has been his right foot "giving out" and possible internal tremors. Our new neurologist, when queried, answered that her first choice of drug for PD is indeed sinemet, but she did not, at our first appointment several weeks ago, suggest any change in our medications, as Jim continues pretty well. As other listmembers have indicated, it's very personal, what works for you and what your neurologist likes to work with. For us, anyway, the use of the seligiline with dopamine agonist (Mirapex, in this case) seems to have been the right choice. We can always start on sinemet later if/when it would improve things for Jim. BTW, I read somewhere that seligiline is a mild antidepressent--a plus in our situation. Emily Jackson [log in to unmask]