Safinamide improves urinary symptoms in patients with Parkinson´s disease

This study investigated the effectiveness of safinamide (Xadago) in treating urinary symptoms of patients with Parkinson´s disease (PD). Researchers suggested that adding safinamide to PD treatment improves urinary symptoms in these patients.

PD is a brain disease where the brain loses the capacity in controlling certain body functions. This leaves patients with symptoms such as tremors. Urinary symptoms are also very common among PD patients and tend to worsen with disease progression. These symptoms can be nocturia (waking up at night to urinate), increased urgency, and frequency. Incontinence (leakage of urine) may also happen.

Levodopa is the standard treatment for PD. However, long-term use of levodopa is associated with negative side effects such as reduced effectiveness of the medication before receiving the next dose. Adding safinamide to the levodopa treatment helps to decrease these side effects. Prior studies showed that safinamide can also improve pain and mood. However, its effectiveness in improving urinary symptoms is still not clear.

This study included information about 110 patients with PD treated with levodopa. 32 patients also received treatment with safinamide (group 1) and 79 did not receive safinamide (group 2). The urinary symptoms in group 1 were of greater severity when compared to group 2 at the beginning of the study.

Urinary symptoms such as nocturia, urgency, frequency, and incontinence significantly improved in group 1. All these symptoms remained unchanged in group 2.    

3 patients in group 1 experienced mild to moderate confusion and drowsiness as side effects. 

This study concluded that safinamide could be helpful in improving urinary symptoms in patients with PD.

This study was funded by Zambon, the safinamide manufacturer. The study was also based on medical records and information might have been missing. Further randomized studies are needed to confirm these results.