Quality of Life is Predictive of DBS Outcomes in Early Parkinson, Lack of Approved Therapies for MS Symptoms, and Ubrogepant for Acute Treatment of Migraine in Adults

This week, Neurology News Network covered the findings of a recent study that suggested that in early Parkinson disease, quality of life is predictive of DBS outcomes, the lack of approved therapies for MS symptoms that present difficulties in treatment, and the FDA acceptance of ubrogepant for acute treatment of migraine in adults. (Transcript below)

Matt:

Welcome to Neurology News Network. I’m Matt Hoffman. Let’s get into the news from this week.

The findings of a recent study have suggested that the 39-item Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire summary index may have some predictive value in determining future outcomes for patients with Parkinson disease who undergo deep brain stimulation.

Ultimately, the results of the secondary analysis of the EARLYSTIM study data revealed that a lower quality of life at baseline was correlated to the change in PDQ-39-SI score after 24 months in both the group that received subthalamic nucleus DBS and the group that received best medical treatment group. The authors concluded that the results should prompt the systematic inclusion of disease-specific quality of life evaluations when selecting patients with Parkinson for DBS.

Multiple sclerosis is accompanied by a litany of symptoms which can compound the disease’s already complex treatment process. Adding to that difficulty is that a number of the symptoms, such as pain and fatigue, while extraordinarily prevalent in the patient population, lack any specifically indicated treatments, which adds additional hurdles for insurance coverage.

In an interview with NeurologyLive®, Annette Okai, MD, an MS specialist at Baylor Scott & White Health in Dallas, Texas, spoke about the challenges that she and her peers are forced to tackle in their approach to symptomatic MS treatment. With a limited number of FDA-approved treatments, she suggested doing so from a more roundabout perspective.

The FDA recently accepted an NDA for ubrogepant, an investigational acute treatment for migraine in adult patients developed by Allergan. The treatment is a member of the gepant medication class as an oral calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonist.

When the NDA was accepted, Jessica Ailani, MD, a neurologist and headache specialist, noted that despite the prevalence and burden of migraine, it remains a widely untreated disease, marking ubrogepant’s step closer to FDA approval as a welcome one. Ailani told NeurologyLive® more about some of the data that’s been presented thus far, as well as how ubrogepant separates itself from what’s currently available for patients.

For more direct access to expert insight, head to neurologylive.com. This has been Neurology News Network. Thanks for watching.