Description
This combination product contains 2 ingredients: levodopa and benserazide. Together, they are used to treat Parkinson’s disease.
Parkinson’s disease is an illness that develops when the brain is not receiving enough of the chemical dopamine to allow the body to move normally. Levodopa helps to control the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease by correcting the chemical imbalance in the brain that produces symptoms. Levodopa can be used alone, but adding benserazide lowers the amount of levodopa that is required, and may reduce some of the side effects such as nausea and vomiting that are associated with levodopa. Although levodopa helps relieve symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, it does not slow down the progression of the disease.
Treatment with levodopa – benserazide should be started at low doses and increased gradually to reduce the risk of side effects while gaining maximum benefit from the medication. For someone who has never taken levodopa, the recommended starting dose is one capsule of levodopa 100 mg – benserazide 25 mg once or twice a day. Your doctor will usually increase the dose by one capsule every third or fourth day until the best effect occurs without side effects. When the dose gets higher, your doctor may increase the dose at 2 to 4 week intervals. This dose should be divided so that the medication is taken at least 4 times a day with, or immediately after, meals.
If you have been taking another form of levodopa, your doctor will determine your starting dose, based on the amount of levodopa you have been taking most recently. The dose of levodopa in levodopa – benserazide is usually quite a bit lower than your original dose. The benserazide helps the levodopa to get to where it is needed, so less levodopa is needed. Most people find the best dose is 4 to 8 capsules of levodopa 100 mg – benserazide 25 mg daily (divided into 4 to 6 doses).
