Official Study Title: Safety and Tollerability of Isradipine (A Potential Neuroprotective Agent) in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease

The objective of this study is to establish the safety and tolerability of Isradipine in patients with normal blood pressure. This study is conducted in preparation to an NIH submission on the efficacy of this agent as a neuroprotection in Parkinson’s disease.

http://www.pdtrials.org/front/trial_...p?trial_id=177

http://www.parkinsons.northwestern.edu/research.html

For more information, please call Research Coordinators at 312/503-2593 or 312/503-5645 (at the Northwestern University Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Center)

I was hoping isradipine would work for me, but it didn't. I have high blood pressure so my doctor agreed to let me try isradipine in place of my other bp medication, although he wasn't very hopeful. He had prescribed it to other patients without much luck. He gave me a prescription for 10mg. once a day, and made an appointment to see me the following week. It didn't take more than a few days for me to see the edema in my feet and ankles increase, even though I was already taking another med that contained a diuretic. At my next appointment we both agreed isradipine was not for me. I hope others can tolerate it, especially if it proves to be helpful to PWP.

Jo

That's such a shame. I"m sorry.

best wishes to you.

I took my mom to an appointment with her cardiologist today. I mentioned calcium channel blockers/Isradipine & PD to him. He hadn’t heard about the PD connection – and I hadn’t expected that, BUT he did tell me that calcium channel blockers are very safe medicines. And he wished me good luck.

ALSO – I truly believe this is working for me. Here is why:

1. I have 95% less neuropathic pain (only an occasional ‘zinger’ to my foot)
2. I now have the use of my bad hand (left) for typing – nearly every day now for part of the day – as opposed to having only the use of 1 finger while typing. The past few days I have been using all of my fingers on that hand while typing. Not all the time, but during some part of the day. And that hasn't happened for a very long time.
3. My neurologist says she thinks I am better than I was last time she saw me
4. The friend I walk with thinks I walk better now

(And if this is the placebo effect, I don't care , I just want it to keep on working!)

Good luck to all!

Rating Reason Side Effects Comments Sex Age Time Taken Email Date Added

4 High Blood Pressure Seems to do the job with no side effects. M 59 10 years 7/14/2007
4 Isolated Systolic Hypertension None so far and I've been taking this medication for 2 months now. It isn't quite as good as an ACE inhibitor, but lacks all the nasty side effects that the ACE has (for me anyway) F 66 2 months 4/24/2005

Average rating for drug: 4.0. This page is printer-friendly; use landscape print.
Key to ratings:
5-Very Satisfied: this medicine cured me or helped me a great deal.
4-Satisfied: this medicine helped.
3-Somewhat Satisfied: this medicine helped somewhat.
2-Not Satisfied: this medicine did not work to my satisfaction.
1-Dissatisfied: I would not recommend taking this medicine.

http://www.askapatient.com/viewratin...=DYNACIRC%20CR

Jeanb, are you still taking israpidine for Parkinson's and is it working OK? I noted that you started taking it in 2006. My husband's neurologist will not give it to him because he says it has only been used on mice. My husband takes Altace 10 mg now for bp. Why couldn't he switch to Israpidine?
Dilou

I must be mis-reading your post because I cannot tell what it is that you think is working for you-iradipine (and if so, how much are you taking and when did you start taking it) and/or calcium channel blockers-and if so, what are you taking and how much? Was it hard to get your neuro to give you a script for what you are taking?

So glad to hear you are doing better, and I'm with you, placebo or not, if you think you are feeling and doing better, you are!

10mg 2xday for hypertension, prescribed by my neurologist. It works just fine for my hypertension. She's willing to prescribe it for her PD patients who have hypertension.

Is it working for my PD? I don't know - if it is, it isn't a miracle cure. For a while I found I could type with my left hand again, and I thought HOORAY - I'm getting cured. But that ability didn't stay - it comes and goes.

But I'm in this for the long haul. I also still take CoQ10. Because so many treatments fail because not enough PWP do better on them - I will take whatever I can get my hands on that might work. (I should really start on Creatine...) and I just keep hoping that I'm one of the types of pwp for which these treatments are effective.

What else can I do? I exercise every day . And I refuse to consider DBS surgery (yet) because I'd rather save myself for a clinical trial.

I was diagnosed in January '08 and began taking both creatine (~10 mg/day) and Dynacirc (Isradipine) (10 mg/day) within about a month and low dose naltrexone (4.5 mg/day) about a month after that. So far my symptoms (left shoulder, arm and hand tremors) haven't progressed, and I am able to control them with resistance training to the point that most of the time I don't notice them. My neurologist is reluctant to attribute the lack of progression to the meds - He says I'm still in the "honeymoon" phase of PD, which, he says can last 4 to 7 years. However, he says it's possible that they actually are working and won't recommend that i stop taking them. I have no plans to do that. I'll continue taking them on the asumption that they are having an effect and see what happens. I do definitely recommend tryiing regular resistance (weight) training as a way to reduce tremor. PS: I recently started taking Inosine and curcumin, also. I guess you could call it a "grab-bag" approach.