Dopamine agonists in the treatment of Parkinson's disease |
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Authors: | Bonuccelli Ubaldo Pavese Nicola |
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Institution: | Department of Neuroscience, University of Pisa, (56126) Pisa, Italy. u.bonuccelli@med.unipi.it |
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Abstract: | Dopamine agonists are highly effective as adjunctive therapy to levodopa in advanced Parkinson's disease and have rapidly gained popularity as a monotherapy in the early stages of Parkinson's disease for patients less than 65-70 years old. In the latter case, dopamine agonists are about as effective as levodopa but patients demonstrate a lower tendency to develop motor complications. However, dopamine agonists lose efficacy over time and the number of patients remaining on agonist monotherapy decreases to less than 50% after 3 years of treatment. Thus, after a few years of treatment the majority of patients who started on dopamine agonists will be administered levodopa, in a combined dopaminergic therapy, in order to achieve a better control of motor symptoms. |
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