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Parkinson Disease

Get the facts on Parkinson Disease treatment, diagnosis, staging, causes, types, symptoms. Information and current news about clinical trials and trial-related data, Parkinson Disease prevention, screening, research, statistics and other Parkinson Disease related topics. We answer all your qestions about Parkinson Disease.

Question: What are the treatments for Parkinson disease and what will be the medical cost for each of them? Please answer me in detail about Parkinson disease.

Answer: Although many doctors still use the drug levodopa (usually in the form of Sinemet) as the first treatment for Parkinson's disease, more and more, experts are recommending that newer drugs, such as Requip and Mirapex be used first. Levodopa is a drug that is converted to dopamine, which increases levels of dopamine in the brain. But large doses can cause disabling side effects, including nausea and painless (but emotionally distressing) involuntary body movements called dystonia. Often, a second drug (a COMT inhibitor such as Comtan or Tasmar) is used in combination with levodopa to maximize efficacy and minimize side effects. The newer medications, such as Requip and Mirapex, are called dopamine agonists, another type of drug. They work by boosting any surviving dopamine-producing cells and increasing the sensitivity of cells in the brain to dopamine. That is, they make the patient's existing dopamine supply more effective. Other medications used to treat Parkinson's disease include selegiline and amantadine, which can be used alone to treat mild symptoms or in combination with levodopa in more advanced cases. Another class of medicines, known as the anticholinergics, may also be prescribed to help with symptoms such as tremor. Examples of anticholinergics used for Parkinson's disease include Cogentin and Artane. Your doctor may prescribe or recommend other therapies to help with some of the complications of the disease such as constipation or bladder control problems. Price of Congentin COGENTIN 2 mg x 100 $21.08 In cases where symptoms no longer respond to medication or become severely disabling, surgery may be recommended to destroy overactive areas of the brain. Although not perfect solutions -- there can be side effects and they may need to be repeated within a few years -- surgical procedures such as pallidotomy and thalamotomy do relieve symptoms and restore day-to-day function for many patients. Several other promising treatment options are being tested. Small, implantable nerve stimulators have been effective at controlling tremor and reducing the need for medication, but long-term effects are unknown, and the units can be quite expensive. Fetal cell transplantation is an experimental procedure that has shown mixed results. Although it can take months to see any benefit, some patients have shown significant and long-lasting improvements in rigidity and slowness of movement with the controversial procedure.


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