Greater motor improvement in right hemibody Parkinson's patients after dopaminergic medications

Received 25 July 2007; received in revised form 26 December 2007; accepted 8 February 2008.

Abstract

Due to motor and neuropathological asymmetries, Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with right hemibody onset (RHO) of symptoms may experience greater benefit from dopaminergic enhancing medications, relative to patients with left hemibody onset (LHO). We investigated this possibility by measuring UPDRS scores of 20 PD patients with LHO and 13 patients with RHO, both prior and subsequent to taking dopaminergic enhancing medications. Following treatment, the motor score from the UPDRS improved for both groups of patients. However, PD patients with RHO experienced greater improvement in motor functioning following administration of dopaminergic enhancing medications than those with LHO.

Keywords: Parkinson's disease, Hemibody, Dopaminergic, Motor, Improvement

a University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

b Malcom Randall VAMC, Gainesville, FL, USA

c Psychology Department, Middle Tennessee State University, 1500 Greenland Drive, Murfreesboro, TN 37132, USA

d Oasi Institute for Research on Mental Retardation and Brain Aging, Troina, EN, Italy

e University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

f Brain Injury Rehabilitation Service, Burwood Hospital, Christchurch, New Zealand

g Hunter Holmes McGuire VAMC, Richmond, VA, USA

Corresponding author. Psychology Department, Middle Tennessee State University, 1500 Greenland Drive, Murfreesboro, TN 37132, USA. Tel.: +1 615 898 2007; fax: +1 615 898 5027.

PII: S1353-8020(08)00054-0

doi:10.1016/j.parkreldis.2008.02.006

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