National Trends of Antiparkinsonism Treatment in Taiwan: 2004-2011.

ABSTRACT: Background. Several guidelines for Parkinson's disease (PD) management were recently updated. We examined temporal trends for antiparkinsonism drugs in Taiwan. Methods. Antiparkinsonism prescriptions, including levodopa, ergot/nonergot dopamine agonists (DAs), amantadine, selegiline, entacapone, and anticholinergics, were identified in the Taiwan National Health Insurance Database from 2004 to 2011. Time trend analyses were estimated assuming Poisson distribution. Results. A total of 19,302 PD patients in 2004 and 41,606 PD patients in 2011 were analyzed. Antiparkinsonism prescriptions increased significantly from 187,137 in 2004 to 414,587 in 2011. Levodopa monotherapy or combination therapy was the mainstay. Levodopa monotherapy comprised 37.4% of prescriptions in 2004 and 44.2% in 2011,

SUBMITTER: Liu WM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4775810 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature