BrainWaves #32 Oral therapies for idiopathic Parkinson Disease

MedLink Neurology Podcast is delighted to feature selected episodes from BrainWaves, courtesy of James E Siegler MD, its originator and host. BrainWaves is an academic audio podcast whose mission is to educate medical providers through clinical cases and topical reviews in neurology, medicine, and the humanities, and episodes originally aired from 2016 to 2021.

Originally released: July 18, 2017

Idiopathic Parkinson disease is the second most common cause of neurodegenerative disease following Alzheimer disease. The risk of Parkinson disease increases to nearly 1 in 100 in the elderly, and although we have been pharmacologically treating this disorder since the early nineteenth century, we have no cure and no definite therapy to delay disease progression. In this episode of BrainWaves, Dr. David Coughlin illustrates how some of these therapies have evolved and which classes of medications to choose when managing a patient's symptoms--from tremor to dystonia.

BrainWaves podcasts and online content are intended for medical education only and should not be used to guide medical decision-making in routine clinical practice. Any cases discussed in this episode are fictional and do not contain any patient health-identifying information. The content in this episode was vetted and approved by Andres Deik.

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We believe that the principles expressed or implied in the podcast remain valid, but certain details may be superseded by evolving knowledge since the episode’s original release date.