What are 'DDIs'?

What are 'DDIs'?

Neal Hermanowicz (Director of the Movement Disorders Program) gives expert video advice on: What are the side effects of Dopamine Receptor Agonists?; What is 'impulse control disorder'? and more...

These are dopa decarboxylase inhibitors. In the United States, this is carbidopa. When levodopa is given by itself, there are enzymes in the blood that rapidly degrade it, requiring larger doses of levodopa which would cause side effects, especially nausea and vomiting, and low blood pressure. To try to reduce the amount of levodopa that people need to take to get it efficiently to the brain, another drug was added to levodopa - carbidopa - which inhibits these enzymes that degrade levodopa. To get the levodopa to the brain where we want it to work, these other enzymes that are in the blood chewing it up are inhibited by this second medication.