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A double‐blind comparison of levodopa, madopa, and sinemet in Parkinson disease
Author(s) -
Diamond Shirley G.,
Markham Charles H.,
Treciokas Leo J.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
annals of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.764
H-Index - 296
eISSN - 1531-8249
pISSN - 0364-5134
DOI - 10.1002/ana.410030314
Subject(s) - levodopa , nausea , vomiting , parkinson's disease , double blind , medicine , anesthesia , psychology , disease , alternative medicine , placebo , pathology
A sixteen‐week study examined the effect of Madopa and Sinemet on patients with Parkinson disease suffering nausea or vomiting as side‐effects of levodopa therapy and compared the efficacy of the three preparations in controlling the symptoms of Parkinson disease. Following a control period on levodopa, 20 patients underwent four consecutive four‐week regimens as follows: (1) double‐blind, in which a randomized half received levodopa and half received Madopa; (2) single‐blind, in which all received Madopa; (3) double‐blind, in which a re‐randomized half received Madopa and half Sinemet; and (4) single‐blind, in which all received Sinemet. Levodopa administration via Sinemet and Madopa was held to a fixed 20% of prior levodopa dosage. Almost all patients showed great reduction in nausea and vomiting with both Madopa and Sinemet. Seventy percent of the patients showed improvement in disability compared to their levodopa baseline levels. Group means showed no difference between the improvement seen on Madopa and that seen on Sinemet. However, examination of individual responses showed that the majority of patients fared distinctly better on either Sinemet or Madopa.