Treatment for Parkinson's: Wh... Video Transcript

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DEE EDWARD SILVER, MD: People can be very, very responsive or get clinical benefit from l-dopa for many, many, many years; the majority of them will continue to do well for five, ten, even fifteen years.

ANNOUNCER: Treatment can not only mean a more active and fulfilling life. But it might also mean a longer life.

C. WARREN OLANOW, MD: Giving a patient levodopa allows them to get up out of bed. It allows them to move better. It allows them to function better and to be more independent. This means they have a reduced risk of falling and having a fracture, of getting pneumonia, of getting a phlebitis. So for all of those reasons, it would be expected that taking levodopa would prolong life.

ANNOUNCER: While there is no cure for Parkinson disease, the quest goes on. With an increasing variety of medications, the outlook for people with Parkinson disease continues to improve.

DEE EDWARD SILVER, MD: I think the prognosis for Parkinson's is really very, very good. Everybody has their own disease. So some people develop a little more rapidly and more progressively and some people are a little slower in the way they progress.

The important thing is we are really doing well with this disease.

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