ABSTRACT
Dopamine agonists were first introduced for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease (PD) as adjunctive therapy to levodopa in an attempt to reduce the levodopa-induced motor complications. The first agents to be tried were ergot derivatives, which have long been known to possess dopamine receptor agonistic activity (1). Bromocriptine was the first oral ergot dopamine agonist licensed and marketed for the treatment of PD in the mid1970s (2). A decade later, another semisynthetic ergot derivative, pergolide, more potent than bromocriptine and with a longer half-life, was tested in patients with late-stage PD and approved for use in 1989 (3,4).
