Neurológia pre prax 3/2021
The current state of pharmacotherapy for extrapyramidal diseases
The pharmacotherapy for extrapyramidal diseases experienced a boom during the 1990s, particularly in the second half of the decade, when most clinical trials in neurological indications investigated the effect of various molecules on Parkinson’s disease and other extrapyramidal diseases. The following decade witnessed a slow decline in large clinical trials, and an issue of growing importance was the introduction of costly forms of treatment of advanced-stage Parkinson’s disease as well as expansion of indications for the treatment with botulinum toxin. The subsequent global economic crisis essentially ended the activities of the pharmaceutical industry in this area, and corporate research focused on other branches of medicine or on other fields of neurology. Only in the last five to seven years, there has been some revival of pharmacological research, both academic and corporate, into the field of extrapyramidal diseases. Novel L-DOPA dosage forms are being investigated and new molecules targeting other than dopaminergic systems in Parkinson’s disease are being tested; attention is being paid to non-motor symptomatology of the disease and intensive translational research is underway. Promising molecules are being tested in the treatment of neurodegenerative atypical parkinsonism. The treatment of extrapyramidal dyskinesias (or hyperkinesias) rather slowly abandons old, traditional stereotypes and standardizes evidence-based medicine strategies. There is a major development in novel strategies in treating dyskinesia with botulinum toxin, whether it be distribution of local therapy, innovation in dosing schedules, or targeted implication of central treatment effect. Even though the field of extrapyramidal diseases is not one of the most dynamically developing areas of neurological treatment, the situation is much less stationary than it was ten years ago.
Keywords: Parkinson’s disease, atypical parkinsonism, dyskinesia, botulinum toxin
