Short brochure on neurogenic orthostatic hypotension (Lundbeck)

Orthostatic hypotension (OH) is the symptom where your blood pressure falls suddenly once you stand up, resulting in dizziness, lightheadedness, passing out, vision changes, or falling.  It’s called neurogenic orthostatic hypotension (nOH) when the cause is a neurological disorder, such as multiple system atrophy.

Northera (droxidopa) is a new medication to treat nOH.  The pharmaceutical company selling Northera is Lundbeck.  At the end of 2014, Lundbeck published a brochure on nOH.  MSA is specifically mentioned in the brochure along with Parkinson’s Disease and Pure Autonomic Failure (PAF).

Vera just posted a link on the ShyDrager Yahoo!Group to the brochure:

www.lundbeck.com/upload/us/files/pdf/Fact_Sheets/UBR-D-00162%20vFinal_nOH%20Patient%20Brochure%20%282%29.pdf

I thought this was a good explanation:

“Unfortunately, some people with nervous system disorders, such as PD, MSA, or PAF, may develop symptomatic nOH. That’s because of the way these diseases can damage the nervous system. As a result, your nervous system may not be able to make or release enough norepinephrine, which may lead to a communication breakdown with the blood vessels. This means that when you stand up from sitting or lying down, the blood is pulled down into the lower part of your body. But since the blood vessels don’t receive the message that they need to constrict, blood pressure drops and not enough blood reaches your brain. This is what leads to symptoms like dizziness, lightheadedness, vision changes, or passing out.”

Interestingly, their medication isn’t mentioned.  Perhaps they aren’t allowed to bring that up.

Robin

Targeting Alpha-Synuclein (protein in MSA and DLB)

This email may be of interest to those dealing with MSA and DLB — both of which are disorders of the protein alpha-synuclein.

The American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting took place in mid-April.  Medscape is a medical information company.  Two Medscape representatives met with the senior associate director of research programs at the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.  They discussed the latest in PD research.  The part of the article on alpha-synuclein is of most interest to our MSA and DLB group members.  (In fact, MSA is mentioned below – as “multi-system atrophy.”)

As this article is written for healthcare professionals, some of the text can be challenging.  But I’m sure you’ll find it interesting to see where the research is focused now.

www.medscape.com/viewarticle/844223

(Most likely you need to have a Medscape account to access this webpage.  As I recall, it’s free to open an account.)

Robin