Recent Advances in Parkinson's Disease

Here is another timely book of the Contemporary Neurology Series, this one presenting the background of the drug, levodopa (L-dopa), highly effective in the treatment of parkinsonism.

Abstract

Here is another timely book of the Contemporary Neurology Series, this one presenting the background of the drug, levodopa (L-dopa), highly effective in the treatment of parkinsonism. With various chapters written by scientists who pioneered in the field, the book is indeed stimulating, and the presentation of materials well organized and straightforward. Well described is the complex mechanism of physiology, biochemistry, and pathology and the ultimate use of levodopa in the treatment of this hitherto severely disabling disease. Various interesting questions are discussed, including the significance of a Babinski response in a patient with parkinsonism; the two types of idiopathic parkinsonism; the aphrodisiac effect of levodopa; the significance of "bloody" urine in a patient treated with this drug; the dangers of its use in patients with glaucoma; and numerous others. The chapter on adverse clinical side effects deals with the subject exhaustively and shows statistics from three pioneering institutions. The