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Current news articles relevant to older adults and caregivers.
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Tens of thousands of people with Parkinson's disease stand to benefit from a
new drug which has been found to result in fewer side-effects than existing
treatments.
The largest, long-term study of Parkinson's disease - which affects
about 120,000 people in Britain - found that the new drug was 15 times less
likely to result in shaking and involuntary limb movements, which can cripple
patients.
Doctors are hailing the discovery as a breakthrough in the treatment of
the degenerative neurological disorder, which is expected to increase in
frequency with an aging population. The new drug, called ropinirole, should
now be the preferred treatment for Parkinson's disease according to Dr. Carl
Clarke, reader in clinical neurology at Birmingham University and a member of
the scientific team who led the five-year trial. ``This is the first,
well-concluded, long-term study into Parkinson's which has shown that
ropinirole can delay symptoms and treat the patient,'' Dr Clarke said.
The trial compared ropinirole with levodopa, the existing drug used to
treat Parkinson's, and found that patients experienced a marked decrease in
the risk of developing dyskinesias - uncontrollable movements of the limbs.
Parkinson's disease occurs when certain brain cells which produce a
vital chemical messenger, called dopamine, are lost. The disorder affects all
activities of a person's life, including talking, walking, swallowing and
writing.
About 10,000 people are diagnosed with Parkinson's each year, mostly in
those over 60 but with one in 20 new patients being diagnosed when they are
under 40. Levodopa works by replacing dopamine in the brain but it gradually
produces side-effects such as confusion, hallucinations, and fluctuations in
the ability to move. Ropinirole works by stimulating the parts of the brain
that make dopamine, which appears from the trial to produce far fewer
side-effects.
Mary Baker, chief executive of the Parkinson's Disease Society, said
the trial will ``radically change the way Parkinson's is treated in the UK.
There now needs to be a rethink of initial drug treatment, which has
traditionally favoured the use of levodopa.''
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(Distributed by New York Times Special Features)
c.1999 The Independent, London
http://www.agenet.com/media/1999/07/29/medic/8460-0458-pat_nytimes.html
