Effects of Long-term Levodopa Treatment to Depression in Parkinson's Disease

J Korean Neurol Assoc > Volume 15(4); 1997 > Article

Journal of the Korean Neurological Association 1997;15(4): 783-789.

파킨슨병에서 levodopa 치료가 우울증에 미치는 영향

최철희, 이준홍, 손영호, 김진수

연세대학교 의과대학 신경과학교실, 뇌연구소

Effects of Long-term Levodopa Treatment to Depression in Parkinson's Disease

Chul Hee Choi, Joon Hong Lee, Young Ho Sohn, Jin Soo Kim

Department of Neurology and Institute of Brain Research, Yonsei University College of Medicine

Abstract

Depression is frequently accompanied in idiopathic Parkinson's disease, and there were many researches about the pathogenetic mechanism of the depression. Recently the depression is thought to be developed by endogenous mechanism or reactive mechanism. To investigate the relationship between the changes of depression and the responsiveness of movement symptoms to the levodopa therapy, the UPDRS and BDI were checked before and after treatment of long-tem levodopa treatment. After levodopa treatment, the UPDRS was significantly improved but the depression was not improved. The depression severity in patients with Parkinson's disease were not influenced by the age, sex, symptom duration, treatment duration and the improvement of movement symptoms. And there were no differences in the clinical features between the levodopa responsive group and levodopa unresponsive group. Any clinical parameters do not predict the responsiveness of the depression to the levodopa therapy. These results suggest that the depression in Parkinson's disease, if it is endogenous, is related to neurochemical systems other than dopaminergic, or if it is reactive, is seldom influenced by drug-induced symptomatic improvement.