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HI Ally, Regarding the soundness of the plan of action. There are a number of philosophies of treatment and none that is standard operating procedure. If your dad is experiencing disability from the PD symptoms- and it sounds like he is- slowness, thinking problems etc. while one can make a case for delaying the start of medications it is my feeling that his comfort and function now is more important especially developing the illness at age 67. I don't think that it is entirely known whether one can develop dyskinesia from the long term use of the new agonists (Requip aka ropinerole and Mirapex aka pramipexole ). Most movement disorder specialists I think- try to avoid Sinemet early in the disease because it can cause dyskinesia (random jersey movements) after several years of use but it is clearly the most effective drug. Personally I would opt for starting an agonist and holding back on the Sinemet. There is a drug trial starting of a medication which may retard the progression of the disease. Others on the list have more information about this than I do. Where are you (and especially your father ) located. If a PD center is near them I would suggest that he have an evaluation there and possibly enter into the drug trial. PD is so complex and the treatments changes so rapidly that most general neurologists are not up to date. Charlie Regarding Ally Deale wrote: > My father (67), just recently had his PD diagnosis confirmed by a neurologist. > The doctor that he was seeing before had put him on Anti-depressants (serzone) > thinking the disease was depression. But, after the drugs provided little > help, he sent him to the neurologist. > > He had his second visit yesterday. The neuro cut his serzone dosage in 1/2 > last time, and now completely. He's not offering any new PD drugs yet. He is > in "early" stages. There is no shaking. He doesn't smile really anymore and > when he walks he doesn't move his arms. He also just moves very slowly now. > And it takes him a long time to "contemplate" something relatively easy. I'm > assuming that the neuro is waiting until the disease progresses before giving > meds. Does this sound like a good plan of action? > > Thanks. -- ****************************************************************************************** Charles T. Meyer, M.D. Middleton (Madison), Wisconsin [log in to unmask] ******************************************************************************************