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Sleep attacks in Parkinson's disease induced by Entacapone, a COMT‐inhibitor
Author(s) -
Santens Patrick
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
fundamental and clinical pharmacology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.655
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1472-8206
pISSN - 0767-3981
DOI - 10.1046/j.1472-8206.2003.00121.x
Subject(s) - entacapone , levodopa , catechol o methyl transferase , parkinson's disease , medicine , pharmacokinetics , sleep (system call) , psychology , pharmacology , disease , chemistry , biochemistry , allele , computer science , gene , operating system
We present a patient who suffered from sleep attacks after starting entacapone in addition to levodopa. Entacapone, a catechol‐O‐methyl transferase inhibitor, alters the pharmacokinetics of levodopa, leading to increase of levodopa concentration in plasma and brain. This mechanism is suspected to be involved in the pathophysiology of sleep attacks in this case.