Abstract
A previous questionnaire study suggests an increased chocolate consumption in Parkinson’s disease (PD). The cacao ingredient contains caffeine analogues and biogenic amines, such as β-phenylethylamine, with assumed antiparkinsonian effects. We thus tested the effects of 200 g of chocolate containing 80 % of cacao on UPDRS motor score after 1 and 3 h in 26 subjects with moderate non-fluctuating PD in a mono-center, single-dose, investigator-blinded crossover study using cacao-free white chocolate as placebo comparator. At 1 h after chocolate intake, mean UPDRS motor scores were mildly decreased compared to baseline in both treatments with significant results only for dark chocolate [−1.3 (95 % CI 0.18–2.52, RMANOVA F = 4.783, p = 0.013¸ Bonferroni p = 0.021 for 1 h values)]. A 2 × 2-cross-over analysis revealed no significant differences between both treatments [−0.54 ± 0.47 (95 % CI −1.50 to 0.42), p = 0.258]. Similar results were obtained at 3 h after intake. β-phenylethylamine blood levels were unaltered. Together, chocolate did not show significant improvement over white cacao-free chocolate in PD motor function.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the patients and their relatives for participation, and Simone Schmidt and Annett Wolz for randomization and administration of the chocolate. Martin Wolz has received honoraria for presentations from Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Valeant, MEDA Pharma, Medtronic, TEVA, and UCB Pharma. Christine Schleiffer has nothing to disclose. Lisa Klingelhöfer has received honoraria from Novartis, MEDA Pharma, and Medtronic, and travel funding from Novartis. Christine Schneider has received honoraria for presentations from Boehringer Ingelheim and has received travel funding from Allergan. Florian Proft has nothing to disclose. Uta Schwanebeck has received institutional support by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany). Due to single projects she has received research support by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Association), Bundesministerium für Gesundheit (Federal Ministry of Health). There were cooperations with onepharm, Austria; Ardeypharm, Germany; Apogepha Dresden, Vivantes Humboldt-Klinikum, Germany, and Novartis, Germany. Heinz Reichmann was acting on advisory boards, gave lectures and received research grants from Mwerch Serono, Cephalon, Pfizer, GSK, Boehringer/Ingelheim, Bayer Health Care, UCB Schwarz Pharma, TEVA/Lundbeck, Orion, Novartis, Desitin, and Valeant. Peter Riederer was acting on the advisory board of Merz Pharmaceuticals. Alexander Storch serves as an editorial board member of Stem Cells, Stem Cells International and Open Biotechnology Journals. He has received funding from the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Germen Research Association), the Roland Ernst-Foundation, the International Parkinson-Foundation, and the research funds of the Medical Faculty Carl Gustav Carus at the Dresden Faculty of Dresden, and has received research grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, and TEVA/Lundbeck. He has received honoraria for presentations, consultancies or advisory board meetings from the DZNE (German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases), NeuroConsil, GE Health Care, Abbott, Boehringer Ingelheim, Merz, GlaxoSmithKline, MEDA Pharma, Medtronic, Novartis, Orion, TEVA, Lundbeck, and UCB Pharma.
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Wolz, M., Schleiffer, C., Klingelhöfer, L. et al. Comparison of chocolate to cacao-free white chocolate in Parkinson’s disease: a single-dose, investigator-blinded, placebo-controlled, crossover trial. J Neurol 259, 2447–2451 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-012-6527-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-012-6527-1