Parkinson's treatment with escalating doses of levodopa
Tratamiento del párkinson con dosis crecientes de levodopa
- Date
- 1967 · confidence high
- Place
- Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York, United States
- Credited to
- George Cotzias (Georgios Kotzias)
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
He showed that oral levodopa given in progressively higher doses improves the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. It made levodopa the standard treatment for the disease.
Earlier, Birkmayer and Hornykiewicz (Vienna, 1961) gave levodopa intravenously with brief improvement, and Arvid Carlsson had established the role of dopamine. Cotzias's paper is from 1967 (New England Journal of Medicine). He was born in Greece.
What it led to
- dopaminergic therapy for Parkinson's
- the beginning of neurotransmitter replacement therapies