Requirements for Parkinson's disease pharmacotherapy from the patients' perspective: a questionnaire-based survey.
OBJECTIVE
Knowledge of patients' treatment needs is an important requirement for comprehensive long-term patient care. The objective of this investigation was to assess the requirements of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) regarding pharmacotherapy.


METHODS
A total of 17,500 members of the German Parkinson Association were given the opportunity to anonymously answer a questionnaire about their health-related quality of life, PD pharmacotherapy and their improvement suggestions for new PD medication.


RESULTS
Answers from 6351 patients were available for analysis. The majority (87.2%) of patients were older than 60 years; 88.9% had been diagnosed with PD for longer than 3 years and 84.4% selected one of the three most severe categories (categories 1-3 on a 6-point scale) when rating the impact of PD on their quality of life. Symptoms that were regarded as very important for improvement with pharmacotherapy included motor fluctuations (66.3%), early morning akinesia (55.4%) and sleep disturbances (43.5%). Properties of a new PD medication that were rated as very important included continuous drug delivery over 24 hours (66.6%) and 24-hour symptom control (55.8%). The majority of patients used physicians (84.2%) and/or self-help groups (69.4%) to obtain information about PD. Topics of particular interest included comorbid diseases (78.3%), mobility and exercise (77.3%) and research (53%).


CONCLUSIONS
PD has a major impact on patients' quality of life. From the patient's perspective, PD pharmacotherapy needs to address a range of symptoms including not only motor symptoms, but also non-motor symptoms such as sleep disturbances. In selecting the most appropriate treatment regimen, patient preference is an important consideration.
Neurologische Universitätsklinik und Poliklinik der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn, Germany. wuellner@uni-bonn.de
Ullrich
U
Wüllner
Gerd
G
Fuchs
Nicole
N
Reketat
Olaf
O
Randerath
Jan
J
Kassubek
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000978:Antiparkinson Agents / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007980:Levodopa / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000188:drug therapy*; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D000978:Antiparkinson Agents; D007980:Levodopa