The arrival of levodopa in Catalonia: the experience of Enric Gabàs i Vilella

O. de Fàbregues-Boixar
Neurosciences and History 2021;9(1):14-22

Type of article: ORIGINAL

AUTHOR

O. de Fàbregues-Boixar
Neurologist. Head of the Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders unit, Department of Neurology, Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron, Barcelona, Spain.
Doctor of neuroscience.
Associate director of the Museo Archivo Histórico of the Spanish Society of Neurology.

ABSTRACT

Introduction and objective. Levodopa is one of the most remarkable advances of neuropharmacology. Its use became widespread following the extraordinary results reported in 1969 by George C. Cotzias in North America. The purpose of this article is to describe the arrival of levodopa in Catalonia.

Methods. We searched for and reviewed the available evidence on the early use of levodopa in Catalonia and the rest of Spain.

Results. In Barcelona, Agustín Codina Puiggròs published a review of the work of Cotzias and other researchers in the first issue of Medicina Clínica of 1970, concluding that, should the optimistic results be confirmed, levodopa would emerge as an “effective therapeutic weapon to fight Parkinson’ s disease, particularly with regard to akinesia,” proving to be superior to the medications and stereotactic surgical procedures available at the time. The first study into levodopa in Catalonia and the rest of the Iberian Peninsula was conducted by Dr Enrique Gabàs Vilella under the direction of Dr Adolfo Ley Gracia, and began in April 1969. Ley and Gabàs reported their experience at the Spanish Society of Neurology’s Annual Meeting in Barcelona on 12 December 1969, and published their findings in the 54th volume of Medicina Clínica, in 1970. After this preliminary study of 6 patients, Gabàs contributed an additional 44 cases treated with levodopa over the following 4 years, and defended his doctoral thesis in 1973, confirming the results published by Cotzias. The use of levodopa became widespread in Barcelona and Catalonia, Madrid, and Bilbao.

Conclusions. In Catalonia, always open to the world’ s novelties and advances, levodopa arrived as early as April 1969, with Enrique Gabàs.

KEYWORDS

Levodopa, Parkinson’s disease, Enric Gabàs i Vilella

Neurosciences and History 2021;9(1):14-22