Carluke couple welcome new Parkinson's drug

Parkinson’s UK Scotland said the new treatment could help people whose main medications are “wearing off” before the next dose is due – a common problem which has a huge impact on quality of life.

Fiona Purchase cares for her husband Martin, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s 28 years ago.

She hopes more efforts will now be made to find further options to help people who live with the condition.

Sharing some of Martin’s “wearing off” symptoms, Fiona said: “Martin uses a different treatment – the Apomorphine pump – as his Parkinson's is now advanced so he's gone from having lots of tablets to take to the pump.

"From our point of view, more awareness in the public of wearing off would be really helpful. Even professionals often don't understand it and they think that the person they see in front of them at that moment is how life is, not realising that within the hour things can be very different.

"The medication can wear off and the person can be totally immobile, frozen and struggling.

"We’ve brought up a family with Parkinson's; it was most frustrating for Martin when we were trying to do things with the children.

"All of a sudden Martin would grind to a halt and there would be times where that was really tricky.

"On one occasion, we had to leave Martin sitting on a church step as he couldn't move and I had to go get the car. People were looking at him sitting on this step just thinking he was drunk because of the state that he was in; it's quite embarrassing.

"It's great to see Opicapone has been approved in Scotland but there still needs to be more options. It feels like any developments have been so slow for Parkinson's."

Opicapone is used alongside the main Parkinson’s medications to make them work more effectively.

Tanith Muller, parliamentary and campaigns manager at Parkinson’s UK Scotland, said: “This decision is really good news for the 12,400 people with Parkinson’s in Scotland and their partners, family members and friends.

"It means more people could gain greater control of their symptoms and lives."