Is AZILECT Right For Me?

AZILECT is the first once-daily medication for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease (PD).

  • One AZILECT pill per day helps relieve many of the troubling symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
  • AZILECT may be taken alone or in combination with other Parkinson’s disease medications.
  • AZILECT therapy is well tolerated.

AZILECT may be right for you if:

  • You are experiencing early Parkinson’s disease symptoms
  • Your current medication is not working as well as it once did

If you are experiencing the early symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, 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.

You may also find that AZILECT can relieve your early symptoms without the need for other Parkinson’s disease medications. While almost everyone with Parkinson's disease will use carbidopa/levodopa at some stage, as the disease progresses, this 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, such as AZILECT, to control the early symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

If your current medication is not working as well as it once did, AZILECT can also help. Because Parkinson’s disease 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 experience shaking, slowed movement, increased stiffness, freezing (the inability to move), and walking difficulties.

If these problems seem familiar, your doctor may want to add AZILECT to your carbidopa/levodopa therapy:

 



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AZILECT (rasagiline tablets) is indicated for the treatment of the signs and symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD) both as initial therapy alone and to be added to levodopa later in the disease.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION ABOUT AZILECT

Do not take Azilect if you are taking meperidine as it could result in a serious reaction such as coma or death. Also, do not take Azilect with tramadol, methadone, propoxyphene, dextromethophran, St. John’s wort, or cyclobenzaprine. You also should not take Azilect with other monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs).

Inform your physician if you are taking, or planning to take, any prescription or over-the-counter drugs, especially antidepressants and ciprofloxacin. If you have moderate to severe liver disease, you should not take Azilect. You should not exceed a dose of 1 mg per day of Azilect in order to prevent a possibly dangerous increase in blood pressure. All PD patients should be monitored for melanoma (skin cancer) on a regular basis.

Side effects seen with Azilect alone are flu syndrome, joint pain, depression, and indigestion: and when taken with levodopa are uncontrolled movements (dyskinesia), accidental injury, weight loss, low blood pressure when standing, vomiting, anorexia, joint pain, abdominal pain, nausea, constipation, dry mouth, rash, abnormal dreams, and fall.

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

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