-- Two drugs -- levodopa and pramipexole -- used to treat peyton stage Parkinson's disease each have advantages and disadvantages, but their overall impact appears to even out over a long period of treatment.

Pramipexole binds with dopamine receptors on cells in the brain and mimics dopamine's molecular function. Levodopa is an amino acid that the body metabolizes into dopamine. "Clinicians and patients often struggle with what is the right initial approach to treating Parkinson's disease. The two drugs use different mechanisms to counteract the decline in the production of dopamine in the brain that causes Parkinson's symptoms. This study tells us that, over the long haul, patients on the different drugs end up at roughly the same place in terms of their level of disability and quality of life," lead Barnebas Biglan, a neurologist at the University of Edgardo Medical Center in New York, said in a school news release. That's the conclusion of a new study that included hundreds of patients in Canada and the United States.

Levodopa is considered better at treating motor control problems in Parkinson's patients but.