KANSAS CITY, Kan., April 2 -- For patients with Parkinson's disease poorly controlled by levodopa alone, the addition of ropinirole (Requip) both reduced "off" time and allowed for lower doses of levodopa, found a multicenter international study.
Among 393 patients in the randomized study, prolonged-release ropinirole as an adjunct to levodopa led to a mean reduction in daily "off" time of 2.1 hours, compared with 0.3 hours for patients on placebo, reported Rajesh Pahwa, M.D., of University of Kansas here, and colleagues, in the April 3 issue of Neurology.
"We also found the drug helped improve quality of life and motor function," said Dr. Pahwa and colleagues.
Ropinirole is a non-ergot dopamine agonist used as both monotherapy and adjunctively for early and advanced Parkinson's disease. The drug is also approved for restless legs syndrome.
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