MORTALITY IN PEOPLE TAKING SELEGILINE - OBSERVATIONAL STUDY

Objective: To evaluate mortality among patients with Parkinson's disea se receiving different treatment Design: Cohort study based on compute rised medical records. Setting: UK General Practice Research Database, Subjects: 12 621 patients aged between 35 and 90 years who had receiv ed a prescription for an antiparkinsonian drug, whether or not a diagn osis of Parkinson's disease had been recorded. Patients prescribed an antipsychotic drug before or at the same time as their first antiparki nsonian drug or before age 35 were excluded to avoid including drug-in duced Parkinsonism. Main outcome measure: Death from any cause. Result s: 1720 deaths occurred during 14 000 person-pars of observation. Ther e was a non-significant 11% (95% confidence interval 0% to 23%) increa se in the risk of death associated with taking selegiline either alone or in combination with levodopa. The death rate was higher among youn ger patients (aged under 80 years) and these with a recorded diagnosis of Parkinson's disease taking selegiline alone. Conclusions: The resu lts are compatible with a small excess mortality in people taking sele giline and suggest a larger excess in patients under SO years of age a nd those with a confirmed diagnosis of Parkinson's disease taking sele giline without levodopa.