Meta-analysis of the adverse events associated with extended-release versus standard immediate-release pramipexole in Parkinson disease

BACKGROUND: In order to increase treatment choices for patients with Parkinson disease (PD), we performed a retrospective assessment of adverse events associated with a novel once-daily extended-release (ER) formulation versus the standard immediate-release (IR) of the nonergolinic dopamine agonist, pramipexole. METHODS: The PubMed and Embase databases, as well as the foreign language medical information resource retrieval platform were searched from 2007 to 2017. The relative risks (RR) of various adverse events with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were generated. The Modified Jadad score (MJs) was used to assess the quality of individual studies. Funnel plots were used to evaluate publication bias. RESULTS: Three randomized controlled trials involving 1021 patients were included in this meta-analysis. We evaluated common adverse events associated with pramipexole in the gastrointestinal and nervous systems. These included the typical gastrointestinal symptom of nausea (RR = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.72–1.28; P = .80 > .05) and nervous system symptoms of somnolence (RR = 1.16, 95% CI: 0.95–1.43; P = .14 > .05), dizziness (RR = 1.11, 95% CI: 0.80–1.54; P = .54 > .05), and dyskinesia (RR = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.47–1.60; P = .66 > .05). CONCLUSION: Patients with PD treated with 2 different pramipexole formulations (ER and IR) had similar incidences of common adverse events.