Experts Share New Treatments, Solutions for Parkinson’s Patients, Caregivers

By Linda Satter

New treatments for Parkinson’s disease, including drugs that researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) have been working on for years, will finally become available in pharmacies this year, Rohit Dhall, M.D., predicted at the recent Ninth Annual Parkinson’s Symposium at UAMS.

Dhall, who is also the medical director of the UAMS Clinical Trials Innovation Unit, said most of the novel therapies are designed to help patients control motor symptoms although UAMS neurologists are continuing research trials to slow the progression of the disease.

Addressing live and virtual audiences from a stage at the UAMS Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, he provided an update on a randomized clinical trial for which UAMS was a site, designed to test the effectiveness of the diabetes drug exenatide as a potential disease-modifying drug in Parkinson’s patients. Despite some initially positive signs, the trial did not show improved course of Parkinson’s disease after 48 weeks of receiving drug compared to those who received a placebo.

Experts Share New Treatments, Solutions for Parkinson’s Patients, Caregivers

Rohit Dhall, M.D., chair of the UAMS Department of Neurology, discusses Parkinson's disease. Neurosurgeon Erika Petersen, M.D., who founded the annual Parkinson's Symposium, is in the background.