LAMOTRIGINE IN PARKINSONS-DISEASE - A DOUBLE-BLIND-STUDY

Antiglutamatergic acting substances are considered to be useful tools for the treatment of hypokinesia in animal models for Parkinson's dise ase (PD). Moreover, most known antiglutamatergic compounds act postsyn aptically and are either toxic or weak with regard to their clinical p otency. The antiepileptic drug ''Lamotrigine (LTG)'' inhibits presynap tic glutamate release and may therefore provide a novel approach for P D therapy. Encouraging results from a pilot project led us to establis h a placebo controlled trial including 20 patients with PD. The substa nce was generally well tolerated. There was a significant difference i n the investigator's overall assessment of efficacy (6/10 vs. 2/10 imp rovement; p < 0.05) and a tendency for LTG to exhibit a beneficial eff ect in some registration parameters, but no significant differences in motor response were found between the two groups. We failed to confir m that LTG mediates a strong antiparkinsonian effect in this small stu dy, but to clearly demonstrate slight or moderate beneficial effects l arger groups are required.