Linghui Wang, Lei Xu
Levodopa has been widely used to treat symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease (PD); it is regarded as the most effective therapy for PD at present. Although the usage of levodopa rapidly increased with the number and health burden of PD in China, there is no systematic review to evaluate the efficiency and safety of levodopa in China mainland. Here, we retrospectively analyzed the efficiency and safety of PD treatment using levodopa in Affiliated Hospital of Shandong Medical College during the last decade (2010-2020). A total of 432 patients were included in the present study, with all patients completed at least 24 weeks of levodopa treatment. Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) were used to evaluate the drug efficacy and management of affective disorder after levodopa treatment, respectively, while any adverse effects of levodopa treatment were recorded. Patients experienced significant improvements in quality of life, as recorded by the mean change from baseline in the UPDRS index (p<0.001). A total of Adverse Events (AE) was 432 cases, 2 deaths and 3 serious AE occurred. Wearing off (n=221, 51.15%), dyskinesia (n=174, 40.28%) and constipation (n=131, 30.32%) were the top three AE caused by levodopa. There were no significant differences in adverse events between male and female. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that levodopa treatment offers a promising option for PD patients in the Shandong area. However, more studies with a larger sample are needed to further confirm the efficacy and safety of levodopa treatment in China.