Rasagiline in monotherapy in patients with early stages of Parkinson's disease and in combined and adjunct therapy to levodopa with moderate and advanced stages

Rasagiline is effective in the early stages of the disease and has shown a possible effect of modifying disease progression at a dose of 1 mg. The accurate management of dopaminergic drugs in Parkinson's disease is able to delay the appearance of motor fluctuations and dyskinesias. The combination of different drugs that provide a more continuous dopaminergic stimulation (rasagiline, dopamine agonists) not only exerts a benefit through diminishing the impact of pulsatile stimulation on post-synaptic dopamine receptors, but allows to decrease total daily levodopa requirements. The combination of rasagiline with other dopaminergic drugs has demonstrated to be as efficacious as entacapone for improving both the frequency and severity of motor fluctuations. Likewise, new evidences have shown that the earlier introduction of rasagiline is associated with a delay in introducing other dopaminergic drugs, thus indicating that the symptomatic benefit of rasagiline on daily motor function is not only present in the early Parkinson's disease stages, but is maintained over time.