From: gts (gts_2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Feb 17 2003 - 02:16:24 MST
Rafal wrote:
[gts wrote]
>> Rafal hangs his hat on a single study in which selegiline (deprenyl)
>> slowed the progression of Parkinson's disease symptoms (a remarkable
>> result!) but in which the drug was not found to actually extend the
>> life of those same Parkinson's patients.
>
> ### I explained before but can do it again: selegiline did not slow
> the progression of symptoms, merely symptomatically delayed the time
> to levodopa, as shown by the loss of efficacy during washout.
I stand by my words. Selegiline delayed the time to which symptoms
become severe enough to require treatment with levodopa. That is
"slowing the progression of Parkinson's disease symptoms" by anyone's
definition, Rafal.
The only disappointing thing about that particular study is that these
patients did not also live longer than those who were treated with
levodopa alone. A plethora of research outside of that study supports a
neuroprotective role for selegiline, and in fact that study did not
actually disprove such a role. We can try to infer from the mortality
rates that there was no significant difference in neuroprotection vs
controls, but that inference may be incorrect. As far as I know the
number of existing dopamine neurons were not actually assayed at death,
leaving open the possibility that PD killed the selegiline+levodopa
treated patients at about the same rate as the levodopa patients for
reasons unrelated to the number of functional dopaminergic neurons.
-gts
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