🎙️ We’re back with the eighteenth episode of Parkinson Weekly, hosted by Prof. Bas Bloem.

In this episode, Bas discusses new evidence on an old drug: amantadine. He reviews the PREMANDYSK study, a large multicentre, randomised, placebo-controlled trial conducted across 15 specialist centres in France and published in Movement Disorders, which investigated whether early use of amantadine can delay or prevent the development of levodopa-induced dyskinesias in people with Parkinson’s disease.

Bas walks listeners through the study’s innovative delayed-start and washout design, explains why amantadine’s unique dopaminergic and NMDA-antagonist properties make it biologically plausible for this role, and highlights the key findings — including a 50% reduction in peak-dose dyskinesias at 18 months, lower levodopa dose escalation, and modest benefits for freezing of gait, fatigue, and quality of life, without an increase in adverse events.

He also offers a balanced interpretation of what the results do — and do not — tell us about true disease modification, discusses important limitations such as follow-up duration and patient selection, and reflects on how these findings may influence clinical decision-making today. Bas closes by reappraising amantadine’s place in Parkinson’s care, particularly as an underrated, cost-effective option for the right patient, while emphasising the need for further long-term research.

👉 You can read the full article here:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41316871/

And don’t forget, you can listen here:

Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/34ec09bc-c8b8-4a28-a12b-ca8aae3edd57/parkinson-weekly?ref=dm_sh_BpcE171Aj6Bvc6jQNKL90yl8o

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5FVqV671ESQ5VxbncsIxIS?si=a29cb8d5e72640de

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/parkinson-weekly/id1836115672

Have a question you’d like Bas to answer in a future episode? Email us at parkinsonweekly@gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you.