According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the drug, rasagiline, slows the progression of Parkinson’s disease.
Since the discovery of the first treatment of the disease in 1950, no drug has yet shown to act directly on the disease, until now.
According to human clinical trials, this drug, which is currently used to treat the symptoms of the disease like tremors and stiffness, has now been shown to also slow down progression of the disease.
Rasagiline was tested on 1 200 American and European patients for 18 months. At the end of the study, those individuals who received low doses of the drug at the beginning of the trial had benefits not seen on those individuals that were given the drug later in the trial.
This study provides hope for millions of patients that are afflicted with this disease.