New hope for Parkinson’s patients
"Dyskinesia (jerky, involuntary movements) is often confused as a symptom of Parkinson's disease, when in fact it is a side-effect of the treatment." Image: MartiSaiz/iStockphoto The illicit drug ‘ecstasy' is strongly associated with rave culture, but can a drug that makes people want to dance be used to develop medicines that curb involuntary movements in Parkinson's disease? A team led by a medicinal chemist at The University of Western Australia thinks it may be possible. Associate Professor Matthew Piggott said Parkinson's patients have a great deal of difficulty moving without medication. The drug levodopa restores their movement but, over time, side-effects often develop. These include a reduction in therapeutic duration (‘on-time') and jerky, involuntary movements known as dyskinesia. "Dyskinesia is often confused as a symptom of Parkinson's disease, when in fact it is a side-effect of the treatment," Associate Professor Piggott said. "For some time now we've known that the drug most commonly sold as ‘ecstasy',...