Abstract
A study was made to test the effects of treatment by l-Dopa on both motor and “central programming” deficits in Parkinsonism.
Nine patients with Parkinsonism were tested on psychomotor tasks, involving both unimanual and bimanual performance, before and after treatment. Control data was obtained from 28 age-matched subjects. These were only tested on one occasion.
As expected, there was a very significant improvement in motor performance of the Parkinsonism group after treatment by l-Dopa. The evidence of improvement in the “central programming” deficit was less conclusive, but seemed substantial enough to warrant further investigation.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Calne, D. B., Stern, G. M., Spiers, A. S., Laurence, D. R., Armitage, P.: l-Dopa in idiopathic Parkinsonism. Lancet 1969 II, 973–976
Cotzias, G. C., Papavasiliou, P. S., Gellene, R.: Modification of Parkinsonism: Chronic treatment with l-Dopa. New Engl. J. Med. 280, 337–343 (1969)
Horne, D. J. de L.: Performance on delayed response tasks by patients with Parkinsonism. J. Neurol., Neurosurg., Psychiat. 34, 192–194 (1971)
Horne, D. J. de L.: Sensorimotor control in Parkinsonism. J. Neurol., Neurosurg., Psychiat. 36, 742–746 (1973)
Meier, M. J., Martin, W. E.: Measurement of behaviour changes in patients on l-Dopa. Lancet 1970 I, 352–353
Riklan, M., Levita, E.: Subcortical correlates of human behaviour: A Psychological study of thalamic and basal ganglia surgery. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins 1969
Siegel, S.: Nonparametric statistics for the behavioural sciences. New York: McGraw Hill 1956
Talland, G., Schwab, R. S.: Performance with multiple sets in Parkinson's disease. Neuropsychologia 2, 45–53 (1964)
Teuber, H. L., Proctor, F.: Some effects of basal ganglia lesions in subhuman primates and man. Neuropsychologia 2, 85–93 (1964)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
de L. Horne, D.J. l-Dopa effects on motor and “central programming” deficits in Parkinsonism. Psychopharmacologia 36, 175–180 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00421789
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00421789