Comparison in efficacy of dopaminergic therapy between a group of Parkinson’s disease patients and a group of patients with vascular parkinsonism

A statistical analysis between a group of 68 patients with PD and a group of 16 patients with VP showed that the difference in efficacy of dopaminergic drugs was not significant. The comparison was carried out with Chi-Square Test (Table 1). The drugs used in the two groups were L-Dopa and DA. This result suggests two items: 1) it does not seem possible to make a drastic distinction between Parkinson's disease and vascular parkinsonism; 2) stable dopaminergic therapy should be adopted more extensively with the aim to include patients diagnosed as vascular parkinsonism who can benefit of it in contrast with the opinion usually accepted that there should be a minimal and short response. Moreover there is the opinion in clinicians that the dopaminergic therapy causes in vascular parkinsonism’s patients more frequently side events like impulse control disorder [3], hallucinations, somnolence, opposite to short term or not-existing positive result.