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Multicenter Study
. 2023 Jun;123(3):939-947.
doi: 10.1007/s13760-022-02100-1. Epub 2022 Oct 6.

Effectiveness and safety of safinamide in routine clinical practice in a Belgian Parkinson's disease population: an open-label, levodopa add-on study

Belgian Safinamide Study Group; Bruno Bergmans  1   2 , Philip Bourgeois  3 , Patrick Cras  4 , Sophie Dethy  5 , Nina De Klippel  6 , Gianni Franco  7 , Gaëtan Garraux  8   9 , Karine Geens  10 , Philippe Jacquerye  11 , Anne Jeanjean  12 , Frédéric Supiot  13 , Chris Van der Linden  14 , Claude Krygier  15
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Effectiveness and safety of safinamide in routine clinical practice in a Belgian Parkinson's disease population: an open-label, levodopa add-on study

Belgian Safinamide Study Group et al. Acta Neurol Belg. 2023 Jun.

Abstract

Background: Safinamide is a recent multimodal antiparkinsonian drug that inhibits monoamine oxidase B and modulates the glutamatergic system with positive effects on motor and nonmotor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). This post-hoc analysis of the European SYNAPSES study provides first-time data on the use of safinamide in routine clinical practice in Belgium.

Objective: To describe the efficacy and safety of safinamide in Belgian PD patients in real-life conditions.

Methods: Post-hoc analysis of the Belgian cohort from the European SYNAPSES trial, which was an observational, multicenter, retrospective-prospective cohort study. Patients were followed up to 12 months. Analyses were performed in the overall population and according to different criteria such as the age limit (> 75 years), presence or absence of relevant comorbidities, presence or absence of psychiatric conditions such as depression and anxiety, patients on levodopa monotherapy or levodopa in combination with other treatments, patients on rasagiline before inclusion or not.

Results: Of the 172 patients included, 29.2% were > 75 years, 58.9% had relevant comorbidities and 32.7% had psychiatric conditions. Almost all the patients reported motor (98.8%) or non-motor (86.3%) symptoms. During the study, 36.3% of patients reported drug-related reactions. The adverse drug reactions were those already described in the patients' information leaflet. The majority were mild or moderate and completely resolved and no differences were detected between the subgroups of patients. Almost 35% of the patients demonstrated a clinically significant improvement in the UPDRS and 50% of the patients with wearing-off at baseline, did not report wearing-off anymore after one year of treatment. Patients under levodopa monotherapy compared to patients receiving levodopa combined with other antiparkinsonian treatments benefit more from safinamide treatment. Patients switched from rasagiline to safinamide seemed also to benefit more from safinamide treatment.

Conclusion: The study confirms the excellent safety and efficacy profile of safinamide, particularly in more vulnerable groups of patients such as the elderly and patients with significant comorbidities or psychiatric conditions such as depression or anxiety.

Keywords: Belgium; Effectiveness; Fluctuation; Levodopa; MAO-B inhibitor; Parkinson’s disease; Real-life evaluation; Safety; Safinamide.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors reported that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Parkinson’s disease symptoms at baseline (%)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Difference between percentages of patients with motor complications at the end of the study compared to baseline
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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