Is Neopro Patch Safe To Take For Parkinson's Disease?

Brief Answer:
Best drug to use for your husband

Detailed Answer:
Good afternoon. My name is Dr. Dariush Saghafi and I treat Parkinson's Patients from the XXXXXXX OH area of all types and ages. Sorry your husband has contracted this problem and hopefully I can shed some light on these medications.

It is actually published and followed by most neurologists who are Parkinsonologists that medications such as Requip and Mirapex are preferred first line drugs simply because they tend to save patients from the motor complications of the Gold Standard Medication (carbidopa/levodopa; Sinemet) and can be used early on for the first few years of the disease. Later, when symptoms are not as well controlled then, Sinemet or carbidopa/levodopa can be used. Carbidopa/levodopa is still considered the Gold Standard drug to be used in patients above the age of 40 who contract probably PD.

Did the Requip address any of the other motor aspects of his PD aside from tremor such as stiffness, rigidity, slowness? I understand it didn't seem to make much of a difference to his tremor prompting your husband to look for a 2nd opinion which landed him with NeuPro.

I'm a bit surprised that NeuPro had that type of robust and positive effect on his tremors since it really is not designed to be a primary treatment for the motor effects of PD. Nonetheless, if he was satisfied with how it helped his tremors then, obviously for him it worked.

The NeuPro is not considered to be as effective as Requip in treating PD, however, again, this is an individual we are talking about and therefore, in my opinion we need to consider that person's response when making any final decisions on which to use.

I can understand why the neurologist wants him to return to the original medication and may ask the question if there were another dose of Requip that could work as well as the NeuPro did for him.

Whichever you choose to use now the truth is he is going to have to get into Sinemet at some point in the progression of this entity. Therefore, if it is with using Requip first then, in my opinion I don't see a problem with him to use the NeuPro if that really worked for him.

In thinking how I would've handled this situation I believe I'd have been OK trying the Requip first but then, allowing the patient to switch to NeuPro if they really felt it helped them.

I hope this information has been helpful and if so would appreciate a bit of written feedback to help me understand how well I answered your questions.

Also, I'd appreciate it very much if there are no other questions for you to CLOSE THE QUERY on your side as this will signal the network that we've satisfactorily hit the mark.

This query required 60 min. physician specific time to review, research, and draft final document for envoy.

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