Background
Impulsive compulsive behaviors (ICBs) can have a deleterious impact on the lives of patients with PD with orally active dopamine agonist treatment recognized as the greatest risk factor. However, the relationship between subcutaneous administration of the dopamine agonist, apomorphine, and impulsive compulsive behaviors is unknown.
Methods
We conducted a retrospective analysis of 28 advanced PD patients treated with subcutaneous waking day apomorphine ambulatory minipumps at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (London, UK).
Results
Twelve of the patients had experienced impulsive compulsive behaviors before starting apomorphine. Reduction of oral dopamine agonist dose before apomorphine had led to complete resolution in 6 cases with no recurrence on long‐term apomorphine maintenance therapy. Six patients still had active impulsive compulsive behaviors when apomorphine was started. Four of these improved, and in the other 2 there was no worsening. Of the 16 patients with no previous history of impulsive compulsive behaviors who started apomorphine, only 1, who was still receiving concurrent levodopa, developed impulsive compulsive behaviors.
Conclusions
These data provide preliminary evidence that continuous apomorphine pump therapy has a lower proclivity to trigger or exacerbate impulsive compulsive behaviors than oral dopamine agonists. This is likely to be attributed to a more tonic stimulation of striatal dopamine receptors leading to desensitisation, but could also be attributed to a different pharmacological profile of apomorphine compared with orally active dopamine agonists. Apomorphine can be considered as a treatment option in patients who have developed disabling impulsive compulsive behaviors on oral agonist therapy whose motor handicap cannot be controlled adequately on l‐dopa alone. Further prospective studies are needed to provide a definitive answer to this question.
Treatment options in advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) include subcutaneous apomorphine, pallidal or subthalamic nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), or levodopa/carbidopa intestinal gel (LCIG/Duodopa). In this study, we describe the outcome of 12 PD patients with PD related complications started on LCIG, with respect to their quality of life measured by a disease specific validated
scale—the PDQ39, together with diaries recording time spent “On,” “Off,” “Dyskinetic,”
or “Asleep.” At the time of latest follow up, improvements were observed in both the PDQ39 Summary index as well as diary reports of PD symptom control following introduction of LCIG, supporting its use in well selected patients. The use of a trial period of LCIG via naso-jejunal administration allows objective evaluation of improvement in PD symptom control in advance of the placement of the more invasive percutaneous jejunostomy procedure. The decision to embark on LCIG, apomorphine or DBS should be supported by input from centres with experience of all 3 approaches. Since LCIG is an expensive option, development of the most appropriate future commissioning of this therapy in the absence of Class 1 evidence requires careful scrutiny of the outcomes of its use in a broad range of published series.
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