Permax and Dostinex Increase Risk of Damage to Heart Valve

Patients Using Permax or Dostinex Are Four to Seven Times More Likely to Suffer Heart Valve Damage

Two separate studies published in the January 2007 New England Journal of Medicine conclude patients taking Permax or Dostinex, two drugs commonly used to treat Parkinson's, restless leg syndrome, and migraine headaches, are four to seven times more likely to suffer from heart valve damage than patients on alternative drug therapies.

Permax (pergolide) and Dostinex (cabergoline) are both from a class of medications called ergot-derived dopamine receptor antatonists and both have been shown to cause heart valve problems, including:

• Heart Valve Damage
• Valvular Heart Disease (VHD)
• Cardiac Valve Dysfunction
• Valve Regurgitation or Insufficiency
• Coronary Valvulopathy

In the first study, Dr. Edeltraut Garbe, from the Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Charite, University Medicine, Berlin, found that among 11,000 people who were taking anti-Parkinson's drugs between 1988 and 2005, almost 30 percent of the patients taking Permex or Dostinex at increased risk for heart valve problems. The study concluded that the use of dopamine agonists such as Permax and Dostinex was associated with an increased risk of newly diagnosed cardiac-valve regurgitation.

In the second study, led by Dr. Renzo Zanettini, from the Instituti Clinici di Perfezionamento in Milan, found that in a group of 155 patients, 23 percent of the patients taking Permex and 29 percent of those taking Dostinex had heart valve problems. In addition, patients who took higher doses of Permax and Dostinex had more advanced heart valve disease.

The two studies suggest that the adverse side effects attributed to Permax and Dostinex are not caused by some other dopamine agonists but are unique to Permax and Dostinex.