Is AZILECT® right for me?
If you are experiencing the early symptoms of PD, you could benefit from AZILECT® alone. AZILECT® treatment alone can make simple, everyday activities easier, like enjoying a meal, taking a walk, or getting dressed in the morning. Your doctor will determine when and if you need additional medication. AZILECT® may be the only therapy needed for some time.
There are many reasons why you may want to choose AZILECT® as your first medication – it's effective, well tolerated, and taken just once daily.
You may also find that initially AZILECT® can relieve your symptoms without the need for other PD medications. While almost everyone with Parkinson's disease will use carbidopa/levodopa at some stage, as the disease progresses, the medication may lose its effectiveness or cause complications that may seem to worsen your condition. Because of this, your doctor may want to initially hold off on carbidopa/levodopa therapy and consider other treatments to control the early symptoms of PD.
If your current medication is not working as well as it once did, AZILECT® can also help. Because PD is progressive, a treatment that has been effective for months or years may need to be changed over time.
After several years of taking carbidopa/levodopa, you may find that the benefits of the drug seem to wear off more quickly, resulting in what doctors call fluctuation from "on" to "off" time. When you are "on" you are able to move well, but when you are "off" you may have trouble again with tremor, slowed movement, increased stiffness, freezing (the inability to move), or difficulty walking.
If these problems seem familiar, your doctor may want to add AZILECT® to your carbidopa/levodopa therapy:
- AZILECT® decreases the time you are slow or stiff ("off ").
- AZILECT® can help further improve your ability to move and do everyday activities.
In any case, your doctor will want to see you regularly to find out how you are doing with your PD treatment. He or she may change your medication if there is room for improvement in symptom control.
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