What are the priorities in Parkinson's disease clinical research? A focus on motor complications, gait and cognition.
Motor complications, gait and balance disturbance, and cognitive impairment are problems frequently faced by patients with Parkinson's disease and by their treating physicians, and become more common as the disease progresses. Motor complications may be prevented or at least delayed by judicious use of levodopa, with other dopaminergic agents used for their levodopa-sparing effect. Increasingly, research has concentrated on nondopaminergic neurotransmitter systems, which may also have applicability in the management of gait and balance, and also in cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease. This review, therefore, tackles these issues and discusses possible future treatments that may be available for the management of these challenging comorbidities.
* Institute for Ageing & Health, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5PL, UK; alison.yarnall@ncl.ac.uk.
Alison J
AJ
Yarnall
D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000639:trends; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology; D020233:Gait Disorders, Neurologic / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy*