Medication and Memory in Parkinson’s Disease (MeMory PaD)

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  A Phase IV Acceptability and Feasibility Trial of the Effects of Medication on Memory in Idiopathic Parkinson’s Disease without cognitive impairment

• IRAS ID

  106239

• Contact name

  Simon Ellis

• Contact email

  simon.ellis@uhns.nhs.uk

• Eudract number

  2012-000801-64

• Research summary

  An estimated 122,795 people, over the age of 65, in the UK have Parkinson's disease (PD). It??s a progressive illness, caused by the loss of a brain chemical called dopamine, which in turn results in tremor, slowed movement and difficulty initiating voluntary movements. Dopamine ??restoring? drugs provide respite from these symptoms, with slow-release dopamine agonists (namely ropinirole hydrochloride prolonged release and pramipexole dihydrochloride monohydrate prolonged release) being the main-stay of treatment.PD patients also report memory decline, the severity of which is reduced when they wake up in the morning before they take their dopamine-replacement medication as compared to the rest of the day, implying that the same medication which offers relief from movement problems simultaneously impairs memory.In a series of studies, we assessed memory before and after PD patients had taken their morning medication. Our findings showed a significant decline in memory when patients where medicated compared to unmedicated. Furthermore, this effect was particularly marked for patients on dopamine agonists (ropinirole hydrochloride prolonged release and pramipexole dihydrochloride monohydrate prolonged release) compared to a different class of dopamine-restoring medication (i.e. l-dopa).These findings are important because patients are not seeking help and support for their memory decline and clinicians are not providing advice to patients about this, or considering memory decline when making treatment choices. The over-arching aim of our programme of research is to release of a set of guidelines of the causes and management of drug-dependent memory decline for clinicians (target 2017) with the purpose of increasing general awareness of memory decline in PD. This feasibility trial represents the first stage in this programme, its purpose to gather information about a series of ??process outcomes? such as drop-out rate, and to identify barriers to participation, all of which will feed into a larger multi-centre randomised controlled clinical trial.

• REC name

  North West - Greater Manchester Central Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  13/NW/0009

• Date of REC Opinion

  9 Feb 2013

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion