Abstracts » Health

Increased incidence of levodopa therapy following metoclopramide use

Article Abstract:

Many elderly patients on metoclopramide are also receiving levodopa because their doctors mistakenly believe the side effects of metoclopramide are actually symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Metoclopramide is used in some gastrointestinal diseases and also as an anti-vomiting drug in people taking chemotherapy. Researchers used a New Jersey Medicaid pharmacy claims database to analyze the odds of an elderly person taking levodopa, which is a treatment for Parkinson's disease, and metoclopramide simultaneously. A total of 1,253 elderly people were started on levodopa between 1981 and 1990. They were three times more likely to have used metoclopramide recently than a group of 16,435 elderly people who were not taking anti-Parkinson's drugs. The odds of taking levodopa increased as the dose of metoclopramide increased. Metoclopramide has side effects that could be mistaken as Parkinson's disease.

Health aspects, Analysis, Complications and side effects, Diagnostic errors, Drug therapy, Metoclopramide, Parkinson's disease, Parkinson disease, Dopa, L-dopa

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The exclusion of the elderly and women from clinical trials in acute myocardial infarction

Article Abstract:

Elderly individuals and women may be less likely to be included in clinical trials of drugs to treat heart attacks than other individuals. Clinical trials are research studies that test new drugs in human volunteers before Food and Drug Administration approval. A survey of 214 clinical trials of drugs to treat heart attacks between Jan 1960 and Sep 1991 found that 130 studies (60.7%) excluded patients based on age. Forty-four studies excluded patients over 75 years old and 67 excluded patients over 70 years old. Elderly individuals were less likely to participate in studies published after 1980 than in those published before 1980. Ten studies excluded women completely, and 16 excluded women of childbearing age. In studies that excluded certain individuals based on age, 18% of the participants were women, compared with 23% in studies without age-based exclusion.

Research, Women, Demographic aspects, Clinical trials, Heart attack, Old age

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