Quality of life and Parkinson's disease: the CR FIRST Study.

Quality of life is an important issue in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Both general and disease specific quality of life scales are now being used in interventional trials. In the Sinemet CR First trial, the long-acting preparation was found to be superior to the immediate release preparation in several measures of the Nottingham Health Profile, a generic quality of life scale. In particular social isolation and emotional reactivity was better with Sinemet CR. The long acting drug was also superior for all five years of the study, for activities of daily living subscale of the UPDRS. It is concluded the Sinemet CR may have advantages over the immediate release preparation on Quality of life issues in PD.