The authors analyzed patient and prescribing provider characteristics for 530 veterans identified from VA pharmacy records with Parkinson disease (PD) and initial pharmacotherapy. Neurologists prescribed 29%of initial therapy. While a patient being younger and seeing a movement disorder specialist predicted receiving dopamine agonists, only 20%of patients younger than age 65 years received dopamine agonists. Initial pharmacotherapy is strongly influenced by the provider’s specialty but mostly initiated by providers without PD expertise.
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