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Welcome

to the

Parkinson's Disease
Adverse Effects and Interactions Database




Prof. Heinz Reichmann, MD PhD
Director of the Neurological University Clinic, Carl Gustav Carus Hospital of Dresden Technical University

Dr. Adalbert Engfer
Business Unit Specialized Therapeutics Medicine Neurology Bayer Vital GmbH, Berlin

Prof. Wolfgang Jost, MD
Section head for Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology, Deutsche Klinik für Diagnostik (German Diagnostic Clinic), Wiesbaden

Dr. Ulrike Sommer, MD
Neurological University Hospital, Carl Gustav Carus Hospital of Dresden Technical University

Prof. Eugen Verspohl
Institute for Pharmaceutical and Medical Chemistry, Pharmacology Department, Münster


Adverse drug effects and drug interactions are the cause of a sizable number of hospitalizations and deaths every year, and the resulting costs place a heavy burden on the health insurance system. Patients taking several medications are particularly vulnerable. Faced with increasingly complex drug therapies, doctors no longer have an overview of all aspects of the treatments they prescribe. The aim of the Adverse Effects and Interactions Database - Parkinson's Disease is therefore to provide doctors with an objective basis for selecting medications for individual Parkinson's patients with a wide range of possible concurrent diseases and to help avoid the occurrence of adverse drug effects and interactions.

This database, which is founded on clinical studies and case reports, is intended to enable the user to query the following points quickly, simply and accurately:
  • Adverse-effect profiles of individual substances ordered by incidence or body system, and an alphabetical listing of adverse drug reactions
  • Comparison of the adverse-effect profiles of two substances having the same or different mechanisms of action
  • Interactions between antiparkinsonian drugs and between antiparkinsonian drugs and other drug groups
Thus, the database can aid doctors in selecting drugs for specific Parkinson's patients with a broad range of concomitant diseases. For each substance a literature search was undertaken using the drug class name, drug name, clinical studies, case reports, adverse drug reactions and drug interactions as search terms.

The searches were run in the following databases:
  • Embase
  • Medline
  • Old Medline
  • Biosis
  • Derwent Drug File
  • CAOLD
In addition, the bibliographies in the selected papers were searched for further publications, particularly in the case of anticholinergic drugs. All the selected publications were rated on a uniform scheme in terms of adverse drug reactions and drug interactions. All together, 23 drugs were evaluated on the basis of 460 studies and case reports involving some 23,000 patients (see menu option "Data pool").

We hope that the tremendous task of compiling the Adverse Drug Reactions and Drug Interaction Database has been worth the effort. The database elucidates important adverse effects with sometimes striking clarity.

Even for us the work has produced some interesting and surprising insights. Because the information has been set up as a database that allows users to formulate specific queries, doctors can access the full wealth of knowledge in a modern and easy-to-use format. It should be noted that the database makes it possible to quantify adverse effects, i.e. a search does not just produce a more or less long compendium of potential adverse effects; instead it generates a list giving the incidence of each adverse effect in percent.

It is our hope that the database will make an important contribution to drug safety and provide a valuable service to doctors seeking guidance in this field.


Current data pool

Documented DrugsNumber of studies and case reportsNumber of patientsRecords on adverse effectsRecords on interactions
23535284213551270


Drug classes considered:
  • Anticholinergics (62 studies)
  • Antiglutamatergics (41 studies)
  • COMT inhibitors (38 studies)
  • Dopamine receptor agonists (277 studies)
  • Levodopa/decarboxylase inhibitors (95 studies)
  • MAO-B inhibitors (22 studies)

Status on: 18.07.2005



Click "Start" in the left-hand menu to enter the database.