Apomorphine Effect on Nociceptive Perception in Parkinson's: a Clinical and Imaging Study
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2008-03-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Patients suffering from Parkinson's disease (PD) frequently experienced painful sensations.
We suppose that painful symptoms could be related to the neurotransmitter deficit of PD. So,
we would like to evaluate the involvement of dopaminergic system in nociceptive processing in
PD patients. The objectives of this study is to assess and to compare the effect of a
dopamine agonist administration on the nociceptive threshold and on the cerebral activity
using positrons emission tomography (PET scan) in two groups of PD patients (in 16 painful PD
patients and in 16 pain free PD patients). We hypothesise that dopamine agonist could
normalise nociceptive threshold and cerebral activity which were both abnormal in PD
patients. Moreover, we think that painful PD patients could be more improved by dopamine
agonist than pain free PD patients.