Is it good to postpone the medication for Parkinson’s disease?

  Many people with Parkinson’s disease struggle with the need for immediate medication when Parkinson’s disease is diagnosed. If they do not use medication for tremors and stiffness, their normal lives are not guaranteed, and when they do use medication they are afraid of the side effects of long-term medication. Parkinson’s disease patients do not have to deliberately delay the timing of medication, if patients deliberately postpone taking medication, the symptoms will become more and more severe, the quality of life is getting worse. When the disease progresses to an advanced stage, there are still medications available, but they are not effective.  It is not wise to delay medication after the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. The occurrence of movement disorder complications is not only related to the long-term application of levodopa preparations, but also closely related to the total amount of medication, age of onset, and duration of the disease. The greater the total amount of medication, the longer the duration of medication, the younger the age of onset, and the longer the duration of disease, the more likely it is that movement disorder complications will occur. Parkinson’s disease treatment should be diagnosed and treated early. Drug therapy should be initiated as early as possible, and early intervention can improve motor function and quality of life; early progression of Parkinson’s disease is faster than late progression, probably due to the presence of harmful compensatory mechanisms in early stages; early initiation of drug symptomatic treatment may interrupt harmful compensations and slow down the progression of the disease.  In the first few years of the early or mid-stage of Parkinson’s disease, patients can obtain more satisfactory results by starting with small doses under the guidance of doctors. As the disease continues to progress, the medication regimen will need to be optimized, and patients can get the best treatment plan at different stages. Improve the quality of life of patients, to ensure that normal work and life are not affected.  It is now generally accepted that once Parkinson’s disease is diagnosed early, treatment should be started as early as possible, which plays a key role in the future success or failure of the entire Parkinson’s disease treatment. Early treatment is divided into non-pharmacological treatment and pharmacological treatment. The former includes knowledge and understanding of the disease, nutrition, exercise, confidence in overcoming the disease, as well as social and family understanding, care and support. Early drug treatment is generally given as monotherapy. However, the combination of multiple drugs in small doses can be optimized to achieve the best efficacy, longer maintenance time and the lowest incidence of movement disorder complications. In the late stage of Parkinson’s, the efficacy of drugs gradually decreases, and the duration of action of drugs becomes shorter and shorter, forcing patients to take larger and larger doses, and the complications of dyskinesia are inevitable at this time.