Reversible Parkinsonism Related to Meperidine

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Abstract
To the Editor: The description of several patients in whom Parkinson's disease developed after use of the illicit narcotic l-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP), a byproduct of meperidine synthesis, raises the possibility that Parkinson's disease may result from either an endogenously produced or an environmentally derived MPTP-like substance.1 , 2 Recently, in treating a patient in whom severe reversible Parkinson's disease developed, we think we may have identified such an agent.The patient was a 72-year-old white man without neurologic disease, who was admitted to New York University Hospital for the removal of an adenocarcinoma of the rectum. An extensive workup for metastatic cancer was . . .