The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 276 No 7406 p742
24 June 2006

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Pramipexole may help PD patients with depression

The dopamine agonist pramipexole — used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease — may be effective as an antidepressant for patients with Parkinson's disease who have not yet developed motor complications, according to data from a recent study (Journal of Neurology 2006;253:601).

Researchers randomised 67 Parkinson’s disease patients with major depression but with no history of motor dysfunction to receive, open-label, either pramipexole or sertraline for 12 weeks.

They found that, although depression improved in both groups, a greater percentage of patients taking pramipexole were deemed to have recovered by the end of the study — defined as those with a Hamilton depression rating scale score of 8 or lower — than of those taking sertraline (60.6 per cent versus 27.3 per cent; P=0.006).