The use of antiparkinsonism drugs in 92 cases in Xi' an city / 中华流行病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the treatment status of antiparkinsonism in Xi'an. Methods Six general hospitals were randomly chosen in Xi' an and all Parkinson' s disease (PD) patients were interviewed by questionnaire from Jan. 2007 to Apr. 2007. Results 92 PD outpatients were enrolled in, including 48 males and 44 females, from 43 to 86 years old (mean 65.6±17.1) with duration of the disease from 0.2 to 27.8 years (mean 4.4 ±9.4). The preference of the drug use from the patients were 40 (43.5%) preferred taking levodopa, 25 (27.2%) with amantadine and/or trihexyphenidyl, 14(15.2%) with levodopa and others, 4(4.4%) with dopamine agonist and others, 2 (2.2%) with other drugs, 7 (7.6%) with no treatment. There were 69 (75.0%) patients onset with resting tremor, 15 (16.3%) with bradykinesia, 6 (6.5%) with rigidity, and 2 (2.2%) with unknown symptoms. There was no startically significant difference in anti-PD drugs among the patients onset with different symptoms (P>0.05). 45 patients appeared the onset of disease before 65 years old and with no dementia, 47 onset after 65 with or without dementia. There was no significant difference of anti-PD drugs between the two groups (P>0.05). Most patients initiated anti-PD treatment with levodopa but few of them chose dopamine agonist. According to the classification of Hoehn & Yahr, 25(27.2%) belonged to Grade Ⅰ, 53(57.6%) to Grade Ⅱ ,8(8.7%) to Grade Ⅲ ,3(3.3%) to Grade Ⅳ and 3 (3.3%) to Grade Ⅴ. There was no significant differences of anti-PD drugs between different grades of the disease (P>0.05). 55.3% of the patients changed their anti-PD drugs randomly during the therapy, but with no relation to their gender, age, educational level, dementia, the number of family members, course of diseases, or the degree of Hoehn & Yahr, frequency and categories of medicine. Conclusion Anti-PD treatment in Xi' an did not strictly follow the standardized protocol, with few patients using dopamine agonist and over 50% of the patients changed their drugs randomly.