Blood pressure therapy isradipine does not slow Parkinson’s disease

Data from observational studies which suggested patients who took isradipine had a reduced incidence of Parkinson’s disease, was followed by a study involving 336 patients with early stage Parkinsons’ who were randomly given isradipine 10mg daily or placebo for 36 months. Disease progression was measured by the change in the Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale Part I–III from baseline (mean: 23.1 points) to 36 months. There was no significant difference in disease progression between the two groups, with scores increasing by 2.99 points in those taking isradipine, and 3.26 points in the placebo group. There was also no significant difference in secondary outcomes like time to initiation of dopaminergic therapy or onset of motor complications.
Chief of movement disorders in the Department of Neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois, and lead author of the study, Tanya Simuni, said: “Unfortunately, the people who were taking isradipine did not have any difference in their Parkinson’s symptoms over the three years of the study compared to the people who took a placebo.”