BACKGROUND AND AIMS: To quantify the preferences of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) for features of adjunctive medications stratified by previous treatment experiences.
METHODS: United States adults with self-reported PD treated with levodopa/carbidopa who experience OFF-episodes were recruited through the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research for an online discrete-choice experiment. Respondents selected among experimentally designed profiles for hypothetical adjunctive PD treatments that varied in efficacy (minutes of additional ON-time), potential side effects (minutes of additional troublesome dyskinesia [TD], risk of diarrhea, risk of a change in urine/sweat/saliva color), and dosing frequency or “No additional medicine.” Data were analyzed with random-parameters logit models and tested for differences based on three subgroups: hours of OFF-time daily, experience with bodily fluid discoloration, or TD. The survey included a fixed question based on attribute profiles similar to opicapone and entacapone.
RESULTS: 480 adults completed the survey (average age 67 years, 69% diagnosed for 5+ years). Figures 1-3 show the relative importance of the medication features for each of three patient subgroups. Prior history of TD or fluid discoloration resulted in reduced importance for the respective attribute risk. In the fixed question presenting medication profiles like opicapone or entacapone, 65% to 85% selected an additional medicine over no medicine across all subgroups, and of these, 78% to 91% selected a profile similar to opicapone.
CONCLUSION: The risk of side effects affected patients’ willingness to use an adjunctive PD medication. This analysis underscores the need for effective PD treatment options with acceptable side effect profiles.
