Quantifying the short term effect on me of Stalevo dispersed in ascorbic acid (Vitamin C).
My recipe was very simple:
- put one Stalevo pill (75mg levodopa) in a glass;
- add 50ml water;
- add 1000mg effervescent vitamin C tablet.
Leave for 2 hours to disperse.
The attached graph shows the pharmacodynamics of the drink on me.
StalevoVitC.png
Side-to-side tap test results (high is good):
Baseline (4 readings).
Mean left = 14.34 taps, right = 12.95 taps
After taking the pill until return to baseline (15 readings)
Mean left = 25.28, right = 19.15
Max left = 32.08, right = 25.81
First minor effect seen 15 minutes after drinking the liquid.
First major effect seen after 40 minutes.
Peak reached after 70 minutes.
Back to baseline results after 150 minutes.
Correlation left/right = 0.960
The area under the curve and above the baseline (gives a measure of the drug's total effect) = 2570 taps.
Details.
To reduce the effect of my previous drug intake on the result, I started this experiment "off". This is difficult for me because I take some long acting medication, Requip XL and rasagiline. I was off these for 43 hours before starting. I was also off my fast acting medication, Stalevo, for 31 hours. This meant that, although not all the drugs had been washed out of my system, whatever was left was unlikely to have a large confounding effect on the result. Meals can also affect the results: I ate a large meal 7 hours before starting. Similarly, exercise can also affect the result, I was at my desk for almost the whole 3 hours 25 minutes that I ran the test.
To measure the results I used my online, side-to-side tap test program:
http://www.parkinsonsmeasurement.org...eToSideTap.htm
This measures the number of times you can type q followed by p in 30 seconds using just the index finger of one hand. It is done separately for each hand. I took 21 readings, one every 10 minutes, except there was 15 minutes between my last reading before taking the drink and my first reading after taking the drink.
In the table below times are in minutes. Negative times represent the period before the drug was taken. LH and RH denote the left and right hand, respectively. Taps refers to the number of q,p cycles done in 30 seconds using just the index finger of one hand.
Time,LH_Taps,RH_Taps
-35,16.98,12.83
-25,13.31,14.22
-15,12.60,12.61
-5,14.48,12.14
10,16.48,14.17
20,19.02,14.46
30,17.33,11.86
40,30.42,23.50
50,31.63,23.13
60,30.20,24.53
70,32.08,25.81
80,30.51,23.48
90,28.51,22.85
100,28.32,21.12
110,26.04,19.79
120,26.57,21.80
130,22.17,15.66
140,23.41,14.07
150,16.46,10.98
160,13.10,9.30
170,13.63,13.25
The source of the Vitamin C was a 1000mg effervescent tablet produced by Principle Healthcare. A tube of 20 tablets cost £1. Ingredients: citric acid, ascorbic acid, sodium hydrogen carbonate, sorbitol, polyethylene glycol, maltodextrin, aspartame, acesulfame, acacia, flavouring, coloring.
John