Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder in the world. This high prevalence of PD has put continuous pressure on finding treatment options. For decades, levodopa has been used as a dopamine replacement agent in efforts to restore the dopamine levels lost during the neurodegenerative process of PD and make the movement disorder symptoms tolerable. However, levodopa administration comes with adverse events such as dyskinesia and motor fluctuations, especially in periods where the levodopa exposure wears off. Therefore, there is still a vast amount of research needed on the use of levodopa in PD. New avenues are arising, including altered methods to deliver levodopa, altered dosing regimens, and the addition of adjuvants, such as opicapone, for alleviating wearing off symptoms or pain related to motor fluctuations.

In this week’s podcast, movement disorder specialists; Fabrizio Stocchi from IRCCS San Raffaele Rome; Angelo Antonini from the University of Padua; Joaquim Ferreira from the University of Lisbon, and K. Ray-Chaudhuri from King’s College London, will discuss recent advances in the use of levodopa and opicapone in PD.