Parkinson Disease: When to Treat?

In a recent multicenter double-blind placebo controlled delay start trial, Verschuur and colleagues¹ looked at at levodopa/carbidopa administration soon after the diagnosis of Parkinson disease (PD). The study compared treatment at 80 weeks with 40 weeks of placebo followed by 40 weeks of treatment.

The primary outcome was an analysis of the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Score between the two groups to determine if therapy should be initiated after diagnosis or if a delay had any effects on altering the course of the disease.

The findings...the difference in the progression of the disease between the two groups was not significant.

For more details, see Levodopa for Early Parkinson Disease: Some Answers, More Questions.

Reference

1. Verschuur CVM, Suwijn SR, Boel JA, et al. Randomized Delayed-Start Trial of Levodopa in Parkinson's Disease. N Engl J Med. 2019;380:315-324.