Parkinson's Disease & Levodopa

 

Good morning all a cold wet morning here in my part of the world and it’s Friday so it’s time for some more about Parkinson’s Disease.

Here is a little more about treating this condition. Generally speaking, the treatment of many medical conditions is standardized but not with PD the drugs used, the timing and the size of the dose have to be adjusted according to how severe the patient’s symptoms are.

Usually if you are in the early stages or have a mild case you will require only small doses of the drugs. However, as the disease progresses that changes any you may need higher doses and more than one or two different types of medication.

Drugs like Madopar and Sinemet are given in the more severe cases. With the dosage being increased as needed till the maximum tolerated. It is at this stage that other dopaminergic drugs may be added to someone’s treatment.

Madopar is what I take.

Many patients also need medication for depression, constipation, pain, sleeplessness, confusion and pain.

The main go to drug seems to be levodopa which can offer an improvement of about seventy per cent which is far greater the other drugs. However, like all drugs it has side effects so these need to be considered both short- and long-term side effects.

Levodopa is absorbed from the intestine and carried via the liver and bloodstream to the brain. The conversion to dopamine involves something called decarboxylase which unfortunately is found throughout the body. Which means left to its own devices the body would convert the levodopa into dopamine long before it reaches the brain where it is really needed.

This is why levodopa contains a harmless chemical which keeps it intact until it reaches the brain.

Ok that will do for now, more next week.