This study states that Despite proven efficacy and widespread use of levodopa for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease (PD), the chemical properties of orally administered levodopa include a short plasma half-life that leads to intermittent receptor stimulation and subsequent fluctuations in symptom control.1 As PD progresses, the therapeutic window of levodopa treatment narrows and patients experience intermittent motor and nonmotor symptoms that require addition of drugs such as dopamine agonists, catechol-O-methyl-transferase (COMT) inhibitors, monoamine oxidase-B (MAO-B) inhibitors, or amantadine.2 Poor treatment adherence is common among patients with PD, possibly because of side effects and/or drug–drug interactions from comedications to help manage PD, other comorbidities, or aspects of PD disease progression such as cognitive decline and dysphagia.3-5 Therefore, the complex oral drug regimens that are often used and frequently result in inadequate symptom control can be particularly burdensome to patients with advancing PD, creating a paradoxical need to simplify drug regimen while the disease progresses.
Levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel (LCIG) allows individualized doses of levodopa to be infused continuously into the small intestine to maintain physiological dopamine levels.
Reference link- https://movementdisorders.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mds.28596
