Proprioception in Parkinson's disease is acutely depressed by dopaminergic medications.
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry
; 71(5): 607-10, 2001 Nov.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-11606670
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
Impaired proprioception has been previously reported in patients with Parkinson's disease. It was hypothesised that dopaminergic medications transiently depress proprioception, with amplification of adventitious movements as a result. This study tested for effects on proprioception of dopaminergic drugs, and for associations between such effects and drug induced dyskinesias.METHODS:
In 17 patients with Parkinson's disease, arm proprioception was tested in the practically defined "off" state, and retested 1 hour after taking levodopa or dopamine agonist. Testing consisted of side to side comparison of elbow angle, matching the contralateral elbow angle, and spatial recall of an unrestrained arm.RESULTS:
Proprioception deteriorated as hypothesised, reaching significance by one tailed t test for each of the three tasks. The relative deterioration (and the 95% lower confidence bound for estimated deterioration) was 31% (4%) for side to side elbow comparison, was 27% (11%) for accuracy in matching the contralateral elbow angle, and was 11% (0%) for spatial recall. Dyskinetic (n=6) and non-dyskinetic (n=11) patients did not differ significantly in these effects on proprioception. Control subjects (n=6) and untreated parkinsonian subjects (n=5) did not significantly differ from the parkinsonian patients in the off state.CONCLUSIONS:
Administration of levodopa and dopamine agonists were associated with a modest acute suppression in central responsiveness to joint position. It is speculated that compensatory exaggerated movement could account in part for the phenomenon of drug induced dyskinesias.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Parkinson Disease
/
Levodopa
/
Dopamine Agonists
/
Somatosensory Disorders
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
Limits:
Adult
/
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
En
Journal:
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry
Year:
2001
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States