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Intravenous amantadine on freezing of gait in Parkinson’s disease: a randomized controlled trial

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Abstract

To compare the effects of intravenous amantadine and placebo therapy on freezing of gait in patients with Parkinson’s disease, this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial compared the efficacy of 5 days intravenous amantadine and placebo treatments on freezing of gait in 42 subjects randomly allocated 2:1 to amantadine or placebo groups. Changes in freezing of gait questionnaire (FOG-Q) scores and in unified Parkinson’s disease rating scale (UPDRS) scores, from baseline to immediately (V1) and 1 month (V2) after treatments, were assessed. Among the 42 patients (amantadine n = 29, placebo n = 13, a mean age 65.5 ± 9.4 years and a mean FOG-Q score 17.4 ± 3.2), 40 subjects completed treatment. There was no significant group difference on the primary outcome measure as total FOG-Q score changes at V1. However a significant beneficial effect of amantadine on freezing was seen at V2 in the UPDRS Part II freezing and FOG-Q item 3 scores, and there was significant improvement in the UPDRS Part IV total score and in the UPDRS Part II getting out of bed score in the amantadine group at both V1 and V2. There was no serious adverse event reported during the study. The intravenous amantadine therapy did not show a significant improvement on overall FOG-Q scores in patients with moderate-to-severe freezing; however, it might be beneficial by attenuating freezing severity and improving patients’ mobility. To prove this finding further studies with larger sample sizes are warranted in the future.

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Acknowledgments

This study is partially supported by the grant of National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2011-0014451). The investigational drugs were unconditionally sponsored by Hanwha Pharmaceuticals.

Conflicts of interest

There is no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Seoul National University-Seoul Metropolitan Government Boramae Medical Center, College of Medicine Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Jee Young Lee

  2. Department of Biostatistics, Seoul National University-Seoul Metropolitan Government Boramae Medical Center, College of Medicine Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Sohee Oh

  3. Department of Neurology, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, College of Medicine Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Jong Min Kim & Eungseok Oh

  4. Department of Neurology, Samsung Medical Center, College of Medicine Sungkyunkwan University, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, 50, Irwon-Dong, Gangnam-Gu, Seoul, 135-710, Republic of Korea

    Ji Sun Kim & ** Whan Cho

  5. Department of Neurology, Hanyang University Medical center, College of Medicine Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Hee-Tae Kim

  6. Department of Neurology and Movement Disorders Center, Seoul National University Hospital, College of Medicine Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Beom S. Jeon

Authors
  1. Jee Young Lee
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  2. Sohee Oh
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  3. Jong Min Kim
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  4. Ji Sun Kim
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  5. Eungseok Oh
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  6. Hee-Tae Kim
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  7. Beom S. Jeon
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  8. ** Whan Cho
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to ** Whan Cho.

Additional information

Trial registration Clinical Trials NCT01313845.

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Lee, J.Y., Oh, S., Kim, J.M. et al. Intravenous amantadine on freezing of gait in Parkinson’s disease: a randomized controlled trial. J Neurol 260, 3030–3038 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-013-7108-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-013-7108-7

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