Efficacy of pramipexole on quality of life in patients with Parkinson’s disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Quality of life (QoL) in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) is increasingly used as an efficacy outcome in clinical studies of PD to evaluate the impact of treatment from the patient’s perspective. Studies demonstrating the treatment effect of pramipexole on QoL remain inconclusive. This study aims to evaluate the effect of pramipexole on QoL in patients with PD by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of existing clinical trials. METHODS: A systematic literature search of PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane Library was performed from inception to 30 April 2022 to identify randomised, placebo-controlled trials of patients with idiopathic PD receiving pramipexole, who reported a change from baseline in their QoL as measured by the 39-item Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39). Risk of bias was independently assessed by two reviewers using the Cochrane Collaboration’s tool for bias assessment. RESULTS: Of 80 eligible articles screened, six trials consisting of at least 2000 patients with early or advanced PD were included. From the synthesis of all six selected trials, a significant mean change from baseline in the PDQ-39 total score of –2.49 (95% CI, –3.43 to –1.54; p < 0.0001) was observed with pramipexole compared with placebo. A trend toward improvement in QoL was consistently observed among patients who received optimal doses of pramipexole (≥ 80% of the study population on 1.5 mg dosage), regardless of disease severity (advanced versus early) or baseline QoL levels. CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis provides evidence for the potential treatment benefit of pramipexole in improving QoL in patients with PD. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12883-022-02830-y.