Treatment of early Parkinson's disease

The early treatment of Parkinson's disease continues to be controversial as our understanding of the etiology of the disease remains incomplete, Ideal ly an intervention that reverses or protects against further damage to dopa minergic neurons would be initiated once the symptoms of the disease are re cognized. Unfortunately, there are no currently available therapies that ha ve been shown to have a major impact on the progression of the disease, How ever, delaying effective symptomatic therapy beyond a point of significant disability does result in increased mortality. Concerns have been raised re garding the potential toxicity of levodopa on remaining nigral neurons. Alt hough there is little support for this concept, levodopa is associated with important complications. The development of new symptomatic treatments has made the management of early Parkinson's disease even more complex and req uires that many different factors be considered prior to initiating therapy in an attempt to minimize current and future disability caused by the dise ase and its treatment.