PARKINSONISM DURING CYCLOSPORINE TREATMENT

Cyclosporine has been associated with various neurological side-effect s including postural tremor, seizures, headaches, encephalopathy, cort ical blindness, and visual hallucinations, We describe here two patien ts who developed parkinsonism, with rest tremor and bradykinesia, afte r receiving cyclosporin A following allogeneic bone marrow transplanta tion. The patients did not have pre-existing neurological disorders, a nd had not received significant amounts of dopamine-blocking drugs, On e patient improved markedly with Sinemet (carbidopa-levodopa), while t he other (who did not tolerate Sinemet) improved with decrease in cycl osporine dosage, The relation of the parkinsonian symptoms to cyclospo rine therapy and lack of other evident causes for the symptoms, sugges ts that parkinsonism may be an occasional consequence of cyclosporine.