Pharmacological Treatment in Parkinson’s Disease

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders world widely. Although curable therapies are practically not available yet, symptomatic managements using anti-Parkinson medications have shown to be quite effective to improve patients’ quality of life. The discovery of dopaminergic deficits in Parkinson’s disease in 1960s have brought about the human clinical trials of levodopa, which opened an “Era of Dopamine” in treatment history of the Parkinson’s disease. Levodopa still remains gold standard. Dopamine agonists have proved their efficacies and delayed the development of long-term complications of levodopa use. Inhibitors of respective enzyme monoamine oxidase-B and catechol-O-methyltransferase, anticholinergics, and amantadine strengthen the therapeutic effects via either monotherapy or adjunctive way. Strategy of continuous dopaminergic stimulation and disease modification are weighing in current advances. This article is providing evidence-based review of pharmacological treatment of Parkinson’s disease from early to advanced stages as well as management its unavoidable adverse reactions. J Korean Neurol Assoc 37(4):335-344, 2019