Parkinson disease: Treatment of the nonmotor symptoms of Parkinson disease

Nature Reviews Neurology 6, 417-418 (August 2010) | doi:10.1038/nrneurol.2010.87

Werner Poewe

Abstract

Parkinson disease (PD) is commonly considered to be a paradigmatic movement disorder, with many review articles summarizing the pathophysiology of PD as a nigrostriatal dopamine deficiency that leads to bradykinesia, rigidity and tremor. As a result of the discoveries of the striatal dopamine depletion and the therapeutic effectiveness of levodopa therapy in the early 1960s,¹ treatment efforts in PD have largely focused on dopamine replacement strategies.