Patients with early Parkinson’s disease who took selegiline and other drugs in the class monoamine oxidase type B inhibitors had reduced disability and they are not associated with increased mortality, according to a study in the British Medical Journal.
University of Birmingham Professor Keith Wheatley and colleagues reviewed 17 trials involving 3525 patients with early Parkinson’s disease.
The researchers found that patients given the drugs had better total scores, motor scores and activities of daily living scores on a Parkinson’s disease rating scale at 3 months, compared with placebo subjects.
Treated patients were also less likely to need extra levodopa or to develop motor fluctuations.
