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NEUROLOGY 2006;66:1425-1426
© 2006 American Academy of Neurology
Brief Communications

Initial pharmacotherapy in a population of veterans with Parkinson disease

Kari Swarztrauber, MD, MPH, Caroline Koudelka, MPH and Matthew A. Brodsky, MD

From the Parkinson Disease Research Education and Clinical Center (K.S., M.A.B.), Portland VA Medical Center; Department of Neurology (K.S., M.A.B.) and Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Shared Resources (C.K.), Center for Biostatistics, Computing, and Informatics in Biology and Medicine, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, OR.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Kari Swarztrauber, P-3-PADRECC, 3710 SW US Veterans Hospital Road, Portland, OR 97207; e-mail: swarztra{at}ohsu.edu

The authors analyzed patient and prescribing provider characteristics for 530 veterans identified from VA pharmacy records with Parkinson disease (PD) and initial pharmacotherapy. Neurologists prescribed 29% of initial therapy. While a patient being younger and seeing a movement disorder specialist predicted receiving dopamine agonists, only 20% of patients younger than age 65 years received dopamine agonists. Initial pharmacotherapy is strongly influenced by the provider’s specialty but mostly initiated by providers without PD expertise.

Disclosure: The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Received August 4, 2005. Accepted in final form January 18, 2006.






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