Studies from Tel Aviv University Update Current Data on Parkinson’s Disease (Real World Pharmacological First Treatment Patterns of Patients With Parkinson Disease and Disease Duration: a Large-scale Cohort Study Using an Health Maintenance …): Neurodegenerative Diseases and Conditions – Parkinson’s Disease

2021 NOV 03 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators publish new report on Neurodegenerative Diseases and Conditions - Parkinson’s Disease. According to news reporting originating in Tel-Aviv, Israel, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Real-world data were used to describe first antiparkinsonian drug (FAPD) prescription patterns among Parkinson disease (PD) patients and to evaluate disease duration until levodopa (l-DOPA) treatment and until death, as related to FAPD, by age group. The community-based cohort (2000-2012) included 6243 patients, members of an Israeli Health Maintenance Organizations.”

Funders for this research include National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA, European Commission, Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Tel Aviv University, “Time from FAPD purchase to 2 end points (l-DOPA purchase and death) was calculated. Cox regressions were used to estimate adjusted heart rate (HR) to either end point as related to FAPD type, by age group. During a mean follow-up of 4.8 +/- 3.2 years, one third of the cohort died. The percent of l-DOPA use as a start drug increased with age, whereas the percent of dopamine agonists (DAs) and monoamine oxidase inhibitor B inhibitor (MAO-BI) decreased with age. Younger women were treated more often with DA as a start drug compared with younger men. In ages of younger than 50 years, time to l-DOPA start in the initial DA-group was 4 times longer than in the initial MAO-BI group (HR, 0.23; 95% confidence interval, 0.08-0.43; 1/0.23, 4.35). All age groups exhibited a similar survival time trend associated with initial drug type. An age-pooled HR with initial l-DOPA-group as a reference group yielded that survival time was 2.4 times longer for the initial DA group (HR, 0.41; 95% confidence interval, 0.31-0.55; 1/0.41, 2.44), 1.9 times and 1.4 times for initial MAO-BI or amantadine, respectively. First antiparkinsonian drug choice might be associated with time until l-DOPA initiation but may represent disease severity at the time of prescription, thus also affecting survival time as well.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Real-world data illustrated that this choice is also age and sex dependent.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Real World Pharmacological First Treatment Patterns of Patients With Parkinson Disease and Disease Duration: a Large-scale Cohort Study Using an Health Maintenance Organization Database. Clinical Neuropharmacology, 2021;44(5):169-174. Clinical Neuropharmacology can be contacted at: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Two Commerce Sq, 2001 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA.

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Achinoam Faust-Socher, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv Medical Center, Neurological Institute, Movement Disorders Unit, Tel Aviv, Israel. Additional authors for this research include Tanya Gurevich, Nir Giladi, Violetta Rozani, Chava Peretz and Beatriz Hemo.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1097/WNF.0000000000000461. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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