Learning Objective #1: Discuss the major drug patterns of PD patients related to their years of illness and degree of diability

Learning Objective #2: Discuss the major teaching needs concerning medication usage for PD patients along the trajectory of the illness

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The major control of symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD) is through medication regulation. The purpose of this study was to document the patterns of specific PD medications that patients take and determine their relationship to length of illness and degree of disability. Such knowledge is a step towards determining the complex knowledge PD patients are required to have to maintain such medication regimens for effective control of their symptoms. Subjects were 38 PD patients who recorded their PD medications on the Medication Complexity Inventory (MCI)(Kelley & Taylor, 1988). Degree of disability was measured on Hoehn & Yahr's (1967) Stage of Parkinson's disease instrument. Length of time since diagnosis ranged one to 37 years with 26 of the participants in the range from five years to 37 years of illness. Frequency patterns of the specific medications were computed. Findings from agglomerative cluster analysis revealed four distinct PD medication patterns of usage of five major PD drugs, namely, Sinemet, Sinemet CR, Mirapex and Eldepyrl. Length of illness was related to drug combinations utilized. Degree of disability was significantly correlated to medication total complexity that included number of doses per day, r=.453; p<.004. Implications of these findings for defining specific patient teaching needs along the trajectory of the illness will be discussed. Implications of the usefulness of specific drug information for research of relationships of symptom control to drug ingestion patterns and behaviors will also be included.