PRAMIPEXOLE FOR THE THERAPY OF EARLY PARKINSON DISEASE

Objective To investigate the therapeutic efficacy of Pramipexole for early Parkinson disease(PD). Methods Sixty patients with PD in their early stage were enrolled and divided into Madopar and Pramipexole group in random.The drugs were started from low dose,and gradually increased until the symptoms were stable and then maintenance therapy was keeping for 1-3 months.WEBSTER score and unified Parkinson disease rating scale(UPDRS) were used to assess the efficacy. Results As compared with pre-treatment,both WEBSTER score and UPDRS score after one month of treatment with Pramipexole was not significantly different(P0.05);after three months of treatment,WEBSTER score showed markedly improved compared with pretherapy and after one month of therapy(F=35.286,q=11.92,P0.01);the same result was obtained by UPDRS(q=7.69,P0.01).In Madopar group,WEBSTER score showed that after one-and three-month Madopar therapy,the patients' condition was much improved than pretherapy(F=76.619;q=11.85,17.31;P0.01);UPDRS score showed a similar result(F=39.032;q=9.34,11.85;P0.01).As for WEBSTER and UPDRS score,the result showed no further improvement was achieved after three months of therapy as compared with after one-month medication(P0.05).After one and three months of therapy,the UPDRS score indicated that the improvement of Madopar group was better than Pramipexole(t=3.767,3.347;P0.01,0.05). Conclusion Pramipexole is effective for improving the symptoms of patients with early Parkinson disease,but in controlling the clinical signs in short duration,Pramipexole is not as good as Madopar.