“For those patients, continuous delivery is a good option,” study co-author and neurologist Emmanuel Flamand-Roze told AFP.
Flamand-Roze said his real-world observational study provided an essential compliment to the randomised trial, which looked at patients over a period of 12 weeks. “The first study provided proof to the scientific community, but it doesn’t look at whether it works in practice and over the long term.”But for those who saw it through “health-related quality of life remained stable with a sustained reduction in motor fluctuations”, the study found.Flamand-Roze compares the device to an insulin pump — about the size of a pager, it is worn on the body and regulates delivery of insulin via a small tube inserted under the skin.
“With diabetes, sugar is too high and we lower it,” he said. “With Parkinson’s it’s dopamine that’s too low and we administer an equivalent continuously.”Flamand-Roze said only half of people who could benefit from this treatment — those who have suffered Parkinson’s for 10 years or so — currently do.The study found the treatment was effective at stabilising symptoms in patients who suffered movement fluctuations prior to starting the treatment.