Evaluating the effectiveness and safety of opicapone for the treatment of non-motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson’s disease.

This study evaluated the effectiveness and safety of opicapone (Ongentys) for the treatment of non-motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). The data showed that opicapone improved the non-motor symptoms and quality of life (QoL) with manageable side effects in patients with PD.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a disorder in which part of the brain is progressively damaged over many years. The main cause is the loss of nerve cells in a part of the brain called "substantia nigra". This leads to a reduction in a molecule involved in the body's movement, called dopamine. The standard treatment for this disorder is levodopa. However, long-term levodopa use is associated with several negative effects.

PD symptoms can be split into motor (tremor) and non-motor. Motor symptoms include involuntarily shaking of particular parts of the body (tremor), slow movements, and stiff and inflexible muscles. Non-motor symptoms can include depression, sleep disorders, pain, and vision problems. Opicapone is a new COMT inhibitor approved to improve the motor fluctuations of patients with PD. This type of treatment prolongs the effects of levodopa by preventing the breakdown of dopamine. This can help decrease the duration of “off” periods when levodopa does not help motor symptoms. However, there are few studies evaluating the effectiveness and safety of opicapone for the treatment of non-motor symptoms in patients with PD.

This study included 33 patients with PD who received opicapone. The patients were followed up 6 months after treatment. The non-motor symptoms scale (NMSS) was used to assess a wide range of non-motor symptoms and the quality of life (QoL) was measured by patients’ questionnaire.

The total NMSS total score improved (reduced by 27.3%) from the beginning of the study after treatment with opicapone. Opicapone treatment reduced sleep/fatigue symptoms by 40.1%, mood/apathy symptoms by 46.6%, and gastrointestinal symptoms by 20.7%.

QoL also improved (by 18.4%) from baseline after treatment with opicapone. The most common side effects were dyskinesias (involuntary random movement of the face, arms, or legs) and nausea in 6.1% of the patients.

This study concluded that opicapone improved the non-motor symptoms and QoL with manageable side effects in patients with PD.

The sample size was very small. There was no control group. This study only included patients from Spain. Larger studies are needed to fully evaluate the effectiveness and safety of opicapone for the treatment of non-motor symptoms in patients with PD.