Non-motor symptoms associated with short term Levodopa effect in patients with early Parkinson's Disease: A pilot study
Year: 2013
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic progressive neurodegenerative disorder caused by loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic pathways.PD is generally characterized by bradykinesia, resting tremor, rigidity and postural instability and the clinical diagnosis is based on these motor symptoms.Non-motor symptoms (NMS) such as sleep disturbances, anxiety, depression, orthostatic hypotension and pain are however also important and common symptoms of the disease.Over 90 % of patients across all stages of the disease suffer from NMS.Six patients were recruited and examined with focus on non-motor symptoms, such as pain and orthostatic hypotension, before and after administration of a standard dose of levodopa (100 mg).A screening for depression and anxiety and a motor examination was also performed.The hypothesis of this pilot study is that levodopa has a positive short term effect on NMS in PD patients.The aim of this study is therefore to compare NMS, particularly pain and blood pressure, before and after medication with levodopa in a group of newly diagnosed PD patients.The results of this study show that pain and depression are present in patient with early PD.It's not possible to draw any conclusions about the short term effect of levodopa from this material since the results were not cohesive and the patient group was too small.
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Neurology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2400401515