Parkinson's Disease Treatment History

 

Only more about Parkinson’s. I open my Parkinson’s and we are at a part about treatment, so let’s see what we can learn.

Treating PD with drugs has only been around for a roughly one hundred and something years, and the most effective drugs didn’t come about till after the second world war. It was the drugs introduced only 40 odd years ago that have made an enormous impact on the lives of those with PD.

Even though it was 1817 when James Parkinson identified the disease, it wasn’t till the late 1880’s that neurologists in Paris discovered that drugs derived from the Belladona group of plants gave some relief from rigidity and tremor. These simple drugs were the main treatment till the 1940’s, when chemically synthesized and concentrated agents replaced them, as they worked in the same way.

This group, known as anticholinergics, meant that for the first time a drug for the treatment of PD was widely available. These drugs can still be found in use today but much less with the discovery of drugs called the dopaminergic which replaces the most important chemical deficiency in the brain.

It was in the 1960’s that scientists in Vienna identified a link between PD and a deficiency in dopamine which led to the use of levodopa. Levodopa is the natural chemical precursor of dopamine. So, it became the first dopamine-active drug shown to be effective in treating PD.

Natural with these drugs come side effects and said side effects can really affect some people, while others don’t get any side effects. How some people deal how some people are affected can change over time as many will be receiving treatment for years or decades.

It is for these reasons that medication needs to be monitored by a doctor preferrable a neurologist or movement disorder specialist.

Because treatment is ongoing and taking one simple tablet may not help many are on combination of drugs and the dosage and frequency of the medication will need to be changed at different times over the years.

More to come next week.