Advances In Treatment Of Parkinsons
Advances In Treatment Of Parkinsons
Sep 07
Recent advances in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease have seen the development of injectable and implantable drugs and devices to treat the condition. As patients get older, it becomes harder for their gastro-intestinal system to absorb many of the drugs often used in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, especially as one of the main drugs, levodopa, is poorly absorbed by the gut anyway, so is combined with other drugs to make it more available.
One of the injectable and implantable drugs and devices available is apomorphine, which is available either with a pump for continuous infusion, or in pens for subcutaneous injections. The continuous infusion pump is designed for use by patients who are suffering badly with dykinesias, have long “off periods” and have severely impaired mobility. The pen is designed for patients with early stage Parkinson’s disease who have less “off periods” and need occasional boosts.
Injectable and implantable drugs and devices such as apomorphine may appear to be more inconvenient to administer than taking a tablet, but act much faster and usually work within 4-12 minutes of administration. Apomorphine is a dopamine stimulating drug, which is believed to be more potent than oral dopamine agonists, and can be used in addition to oral therapy, as well as in standalone treatment, to improve mobility and reduce the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
