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Title: Levodopa Medications Do Not Improve Parkinsonian Speech: Presented at AAN

"Levodopa Medications Do Not Improve Parkinsonian Speech: Presented at AAN"

By Jill Stein SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- April 30, 2004 -- There is no significant improvement in perceptual speech characteristics following administration of levodopa in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), said researchers presenting study results on April 28th here at the American Academy of Neurology 56th Annual Meeting. Speech and voice dysfunction have been reported to affect between 60% and 90% of PD patients. Emily K. Plowman, BSc, and co-workers, University of Florida and Malcolm Randall VA Medical Center, Gainesville, Florida, United States, examined the effects of pharmacological treatment of levodopa on 34 perceptual speech dimensions in 16 PD patients. The speech characteristics were grouped under 6 physiologic speech subsystems, which included articulation, respiration, resonance, pernation, prosody, and rate. The study found no significant differences in perceptual speech characteristics of PD patients off levodopa versus those on levodopa. "This finding is consistent with most studies that have examined the effects of dopaminergic medications on the speech system," Ms. Plowman said. Disparate improvements between "speech motor" and "other motor" modalities were revealed, suggesting the existence of non-dopaminergic neural circuitry for the speech system, Ms. Plowman added. The researcher also noted that further investigation is warranted using larger samples and across a range of other fine and gross motor modalities. "The results highlight the need for a combination of pharmacologic, surgical, and behavioural therapies in an effort to optimise function across all motor modalities," Ms. Plowman concluded. [Presentation Title: "Effects of Pharmacological Treatment of Levodopa on Parkinsonian Speech." Abstract #P04.149]

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