Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-19-2022

Comments

This article is the author's final version published in Clinical Parkinsonism and Related Disorders, Volume 8, 2023, Article number 100174.

The published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prdoa.2022.100174. Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Abstract

Introduction

Pretreatment with the antiemetic trimethobenzamide has been recommended practice in the United States (US) to address the risk of nausea and vomiting during initiation of apomorphine treatment. However, trimethobenzamide is no longer being manufactured in the US, and despite the recent update to the US prescribing information, there may be uncertainty regarding how to initiate apomorphine.

Methods

To better understand why antiemetic pretreatment was recommended and if it is necessary when initiating apomorphine therapy, we performed a literature review of subcutaneous apomorphine therapy initiation with and without antiemetic pretreatment in patients with PD.

Results

Three studies were identified as providing relevant information on antiemetic prophylaxis with initiation of injectable apomorphine. The first study demonstrated that nausea was significantly more common in patients who received 3-days of trimethobenzamide pretreatment compared with those who did not, while the primary endpoint of second study found no significant effect on the binary incidence of nausea and/or vomiting on Day 1 of apomorphine treatment. In the third study, which used a slow titration scheme for apomorphine, transient nausea was reported in just 23.1% of the antiemetic nonusers.

Conclusions

Based on the reviewed trials and our clinical experience, we suggest that subcutaneous apomorphine therapy can be initiated using a slow titration scheme without antiemetic pretreatment.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Language

English

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