TITLE:
Safety and Efficacy of a Transdermal Rotigotine for the Treatment of Fatigue and Quality of Life in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease
AUTHORS:
Kazuo Abe, Masashi Fujita, Hiroo Yoshikawa
KEYWORDS:
Parkinson’s Disease, Non-Motor Symptoms, Fatigue, Quality of Life, Transdermal Rotigotine
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Parkinson's Disease,
Vol.4 No.4,
November
13,
2015
ABSTRACT: Aim: To evaluate safety and efficacy of a transdermal rotigotine for the treatment of fatigue and
quality of life (QOL) in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). This was a multi-sites open-label
study of 58 PD patients (male 26, female 32) who met a Japanese PD diagnosis criterion. They received
a transdermal rotigotine 4.5 mg/day for 8 weeks. We added a rotigotine on the previous
anti-Parkinson’s drugs. Clinical signs were evaluated by Hoehn-Yahr (H-Y) stage, unified Parkinson’s
disease rating scale (UPDRS), fatigue severity scale (FSS), and Euro quality of life (QOL). The
scores of UPDRS improved from 35.2 ± 8.0 (mean ± SD) to 31.8 ± 8.3 (P = 0.14). There was no significant
improvement or worsening of the H-Y stages. The scores of FSS improved from 57.3 ± 12.7
(mean ± SD) to 50.1 ± 11.8 (P = 0.061). The scores of QOL improved from 38.1 ± 11.1 to 48.3 ± 10.0
(P = 0.068). Our data demonstrate that, in a small sample size, administration of a transdermal rotigotine was associated with few side effects and was modestly effective for the treatment of fatigue
and QOL in patients with PD.