The short-term effect of nicotine chewing gum in patients with Parkinson's disease.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) in the context of parkinson's disease, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Because of the inverse association of cigarette smoking with the risk of Parkinson's disease, the researchers performed a short-term, double-blind, randomized controlled trial of nicotine polacrilex resin gum in patients with this disease.

Forty-eight subjects were randomly assigned to chew either nicotine gum or placebo gum three times at 2-h intervals, with evaluation of symptoms before and after the trial.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) group and the comparison group should start out alike.

As a double-blind Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

Some participants received a placebo instead of Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide), giving a reference point.

What Was Measured

Forty-eight subjects were randomly assigned to chew either nicotine gum or placebo gum three times at 2-h intervals, with evaluation of symptoms before and after the trial.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Blood Pressure, Central Nervous System Stimulants, Chewing Gum, Nicotine, Parkinson Disease, Polymethacrylic Acids and Polyvinyls.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) in people with parkinson's disease.

The publication is from 1995 (Psychopharmacology), a journal based in Germany.

More context: the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) compound page, Parkinson's disease research.