Tremorlytic activity of budipine in Parkinson's disease

To objectively quantify the tremorlytic activity of budipine in Parkinson's disease (PD), we performed long-term tremor recordings in addition to the Columbia University Rating Scale (CURS) in a subset of patients (n = 14) wh o enrolled in a multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Tremor occurrence improved in the budipine group (n = 7) from 24.7 +/- 15.5% to 1 4.8 +/- 14.5% (p < 0.05). Tremor intensity decreased from 9.1 +/- 2.5 (sign al-to-noise ratio) to 7.2 +/- 1.6. The CURS sum score improved from 5.7 to 3.0 in the budipine group, whereas there was only a small improvement in th e placebo group (from 7.1 to 5.5). These data suggest that budipine is an e ffective tremorlytic agent in PD and that it may be used as an alternative to anticholinergics.