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Introduction: Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a progressive age-related neurodegenerative condition requiring new therapeutic alternatives. Safinamide, a novel levodopa add-on therapy, positively affects disease fluctuations by modulating both dopaminergic and glutamatergic systems. To further investigate the use of safinamide in European routine clinical practice, the present post-hoc analysis aimed to understand safinamide's safety profile within the Spanish study population., Patients and Methods: Five hundred eleven Spanish patients with PD were evaluated at baseline, four (±1), eight (±1), and 12 (±1) months after initiating safinamide treatment. Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) total score and UPDRS part III score during on time were used to measure the overall severity of PD and motor complications, respectively, while the severity of adverse events was evaluated following the investigators' criteria., Results: Safinamide showed a favourable safety profile within the Spanish study population, although prescription to patients with psychiatric conditions and off-label use were more frequent than in the European study population. In Spain, clinically meaningful improvements were observed in UPDRS scores when safinamide was used as the only add-on therapy to levodopa (57.4% and 53.7% of patients) and when switching from rasagiline (55.1% of patients). Motor complications were reduced from 83.2% to 63.3% after the study period. Increased safety concerns were undetected in any patient subgroup, although patients with cognitive impairment showed a slightly higher frequency of adverse events., Conclusions: This subanalysis further supports safinamide use as a safe and efficacious option for the management of motor fluctuations in different subgroups of levodopa-treated patients. However, safinamide should be used with caution in patients with cognitive impairment.

In recent years we have witnessed a growing tendency to opt for the use of dopamine agonists (DA) as treatment for Parkinson's disease (PD), with the aim of delaying as far as possible the development of fluctuations and dyskinesias. Yet, levodopa continues to be the most effective antiparkinson drug and is probably the one that improves the greatest number of symptoms of the disease. This article reports on the results of a comprehensive review of the literature dealing with the benefits and risks of levodopa treatment in patients with PD which was conducted by a group of expert neurologists and members of the Spanish Neurology Society's Movement Disorder Group. The main conclusion reached in this article is that levodopa continues to be the most effective treatment for PD. Although the risk and incidence of developing dyskinesias remains at a lower level in the group initially treated with DA, the number of patients who develop disabling dyskinesias is very low in all the studies and is similar for DA and for levodopa. Scores on the quality of life scales are also similar in the two groups, which casts some doubt on the impact that these motor complications have on the quality of life of patients with PD. In view of these findings, we should consider whether there is any real justification for depriving patients of the good control of their symptoms offered by levodopa owing to the fear of developing dyskinesias or mild motor fluctuations that are not really going to have any negative effect on their quality of life. There is also the possibility of their developing severe side effects, which are more frequent with the use of DA.

Introduction: It is well known that patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and other neurodegenerative diseases very commonly present sleep disorders, and that they possibly share common pathophysiological mechanisms with motor signs., Development: In the case of REM sleep behaviour disorder, a number of studies have shown that it may appear more than ten years before the motor signs. Although there is no evidence to prove that patients with restless legs syndrome have an increased risk of suffering from PD, the high prevalence of this symptom in PD and the good response to dopamine agonists suggest the existence of a relation between the two conditions., Conclusions: The impact that these conditions have on patients' quality of life makes it very important to know how to diagnose and treat them.

Introduction: Tourette syndrome is a neurologic disorder characterized by involuntary vocal and motor tics. It affects around 1 to 2% of school-age children and is the most common movement disorder in paediatric age. Tics are involuntary or semivoluntary, sudden, brief, intermittent, repetitive movements (motor tics) or sounds (phonic tics). It is often associated with psychiatric comorbidities, mainly attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Given its diverse presentation, Tourette's syndrome can almost mimic many hyperkinetic disorders, making the diagnosis challenging at times., Development: The etiology of this syndrome is thought to be related to basal ganglia dysfunction and many clues have been pursued, both genetic and environmental factors, but no compelling major contribution to the pathogenesis of the disease has yet emerged. Treatment can be behavioural, pharmacologic, or surgical, and is dictated by the most incapacitating symptoms. Alpha-2-adrenergic agonists are the first line of pharmacologic therapy, but dopamine-receptor-blocking drugs are required for multiple, complex tics. Dopamine-receptor-blocking drugs are associated with potential side effects., Conclusion: Appropriate diagnosis and treatment can substantially improve quality of life and psychosocial functioning in affected patients.

Introduction: Caring for patients suffering from a cerebrovascular diseases requires a large quantity of resources which must be optimised. The aim of this study is to analyse the management of stroke in a tertiary care hospital., Patients and Methods: All admissions with a diagnosis of stroke were analysed retrospectively for the year 2003. Length of stay, computed tomography in the Emergency Room, origin, previous admissions during the last year, presence of vascular risk factors, stroke subtype, complications and mortality during admission and destination when discharged from hospital, were all recorded., Results: 936 patients were admitted to hospital with a diagnosis of stroke. 80.22% corresponded to acute ischaemic strokes (27.14% lacunar, 18.57% transient ischaemic attacks, 10.25% cardioembolic, 15.44% aterothrombotic, 8.44% infarct of undetermined cause, 0.24% unusual aetiology) and 19.78% corresponded to haemorrhagic strokes (13.99% intraparenchymatous hemorrhage, 5.79% subarachnoid hemorrhage). Intra-hospital mortality was 5.3%. 11% suffered from complications while in hospital, and average length of stay was 10.4 days, being much longer for those patients discharged to a medium-long stay centre (17.5 days). Compared to other series, the incidence of cardioembolic and aterothrombotic subtypes of stroke is low. However, because of the inclusion of neurosurgical patients, an increase of cerebral haemorrhages is observed., Conclusions: Intra-hospital morbidity and mortality and average length of stay in our series are consistent with those from other centres of similar characteristics. A better coordination with medium-long stay centres along with the presence of neurologists on call, would certainly improve these variables.