Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Parkinson disease

Adjunctive entacapone therapy increases risk of dyskinesia

Levodopa treatment alleviates the motor symptoms that characterize Parkinson disease, but is associated with motor complications. Treatments that prolong the action of levodopa could potentially reduce the risk of these adverse events, but a new study reports that one such approach—entacapone as an adjunct to levodopa–carbidopa—is associated with earlier dyskinesia onset than with levodopa–carbidopa alone.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Grace, A. A. & Bunney, B. S. The control of firing pattern in nigral dopamine neurons: single spike firing. J. Neurosci. 4, 2866–2876 (1984).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Smith, L. A. et al. Multiple small doses of levodopa plus entacapone produces continuous dopaminergic stimulation and reduces dyskinesia induction in MPTP treated drug naive primates. Mov. Disord. 20, 306–314 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Stocchi, F. et al. Initiating levodopa/carbidopa therapy with and without entacapone in early Parkinson disease: the STRIDE-PD study. Ann. Neurol. 68, 18–27 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Rascol, O. et al. A five year study of the incidence of dyskinesia in patients with early Parkinson's disease who were treated with ropinirole or levodopa. N. Engl. J. Med. 342, 1484–1491 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Parkinson Study Group. Pramipexole vs levodopa as initial treatment for Parkinson disease: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA 284, 1931–1938 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Kuoppamäki, M. et al. Comparison of pharmacokinetic profile of levodopa throughout the day between levodopa/carbidopa/entacapone and levodopa/carbidopa when administered four or five times daily. Eur. J. Clin. Pharmacol. 65, 443–455 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Heikkinen, H. et al. Entacapone improves the availability of L-dopa in plasma by decreasing its peripheral metabolism independent of L-dopa/carbidopa dose. Br. J. Clin. Pharmacol. 54, 363–371 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Block, G., Liss, C., Reines, S., Irr, J. & Nibbelink, D. Comparison of immediate-release and controlled release carbidopa/levodopa in Parkinson's disease. A multicenter 5-year study. The CR First Study Group. Eur. Neurol. 37, 23–27 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Dupont, E. et al. Sustained-release Madopar HBS compared with standard Madopar in the long-term treatment of de novo parkinsonian patients. Acta Neurol. Scand. 93, 14–20 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Mouradian, M. M., Heuser, I. J., Baronti, F. & Chase, T. N. Modification of central dopaminergic mechanisms by continuous levodopa therapy for advanced Parkinson's disease. Ann. Neurol. 27, 18–23 (1990).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cristina Sampaio.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

J. J. Ferreira has acted as a consultant for and received honoraria for lectures from Lundbeck, Novartis and Teva Pharmaceuticals, he has also received research support from Lundbeck and Teva Pharmaceuticals. C. Sampaio declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sampaio, C., Ferreira, J. Adjunctive entacapone therapy increases risk of dyskinesia. Nat Rev Neurol 6, 590–591 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2010.158

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2010.158

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing