ANA: 24-Hour Patch for Parkinson's Exhibits Staying Power - CME Teaching Brief - MedPage Today
CHICAGO -- Parkinson's patients were able to control symptoms of early-stage disease for at least 85 weeks using a once-daily transdermal patch delivering investigational rotigotine, investigators reported here.
Action Points
* Explain to interested patients that the rotigotine transdermal patch is still investigational therapy.
* This study was presented orally at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary as they have not yet been reviewed and published in a peer-reviewed publication.
The patients were part of an open-label extension trial of the patch, which contains 2 mg to 6 mg of the rotigotine, a dopamine agonist.
Before the extension trial, the patch was compared with placebo in a six-month test of efficacy, reported Ray Watts, M.D., chairman of neurology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, at the American Neurological Association meeting.
The 137 patients on the active medication showed an immediate reduction in scores on the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale of about seven points, he said, and after six months that score remained four points below baseline.
Posted by gruwell at October 13, 2006 9:33 AM | TrackBack