ceruletide and Parkinson-Disease

Topics: Adult; Aged; Ceruletide; Cholecystokinin; Clinical Trials as Topic; Dopamine; Double-Blind Method; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Parkinson Disease; Schizophrenia

Topics: Animals; Ceruletide; Cholecystokinin; Clinical Trials as Topic; Feeding Behavior; Humans; Motor Activity; Parkinson Disease; Receptors, Dopamine; Schizophrenia; Sincalide; Synapses

In view of evidence linking cholecystokinin-containing neurons with both dopamine system function and Parkinson's disease pathophysiology, the therapeutic effects of the cholecystokinin analog, caerulein, were evaluated in 10 parkinsonian patients stabilized on L-Dopa therapy. Despite substantially elevated plasma caerulein levels immediately following intramuscular injection of this peptide, no consistent change in neurologic status could be discerned. These negative results may be due to the relatively small amounts of caerulein entering the CNS at dose levels that do not induce gastrointestinal toxicity.

Topics: Adult; Aged; Carbidopa; Ceruletide; Clinical Trials as Topic; Double-Blind Method; Female; Humans; Levodopa; Male; Middle Aged; Movement Disorders; Parkinson Disease

Sweat function was studied in patients with Parkinson's disease and in normal adults by sympathetic skin response, the bromphenol blue printing method and the silicone mould method. In patients with Parkinson's disease, dysfunction of sweating was classified into two types: one type involved the postganglionic fibres and the other involved the preganglionic fibres or the central nervous system. The latter was observed in patients with milder disease and the former was observed in patients with severe disease. The progressive involvement of sweat function in Parkinson's disease may reflect spread from the central nervous system or preganglionic fibres to postganglionic fibres. In a few patients the results of sweat tests were normal. Ceruletide increased sweating in Parkinson's disease patients, and decreased the prolonged latency of the sympathetic skin response. It is hypothesized that ceruletide facilitates the preserved somatosympathetic reflex of sweating.

Topics: Aged; Axons; Ceruletide; Galvanic Skin Response; Humans; Parkinson Disease; Skin; Sweat; Sweat Glands; Sweating; Sympathetic Nervous System