a Nobel Prize in 2000, Swedish scientist Arvid Carlsson first showed in the 1950s that administering -DOPA to animals with drug-induced (reserpine) Parkinsonian symptoms caused a reduction in the intensity of the animals' symptoms. In 1960/61 Oleh Hornykiewicz, after discovering greatly reduced levels of dopamine in autopsied brains of patients with Parkinson's disease, published together with the neurologist Walther Birkmayer dramatic therapeutic antiparkinson effects of intravenously administered -DOPA in patients. This treatment was later extended to manganese poisoning and later Parkinsonism by George Cotzias and his coworkers, who used greatly increased oral doses, for which they won the 1969 Lasker Prize. The neurologist Oliver Sacks describes this treatment in human patients with encephalitis lethargica in his 1973 book Awakenings, upon which the 1990 movie of the same name is based. The first study reporting improvements in patients with Parkinson's disease resulting from treatment with L-dopa was published in 1968. The 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was also related to -DOPA: the Nobel Committee awarded one-quarter of the prize to William S. Knowles for his work on chirally catalysed hydrogenation reactions, the most noted example of which was used for the synthesis of -DOPA. Research Age-related macular degeneration In 2015, a retrospective analysis comparing the incidence of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) between patients taking versus not taking -DOPA found that the drug delayed onset of AMD by around 8 years. The authors state that significant effects were obtained for both dry and wet AMD. See also -DOPA (Dextrodopa) -DOPS (Droxidopa) Methyldopa (Aldomet, Apo-Methyldopa, Dopamet, Novomedopa, etc.) Dopamine (Intropan, Inovan, Revivan, Rivimine, Dopastat, Dynatra, etc.) Ciladopa Neuroleptic malignant syndrome Melanin (a metabolite) References External links Aromatic amino acids Antiparkinsonian agents Carbonic anhydrase activators Catecholamines Dopamine agonists Prodrugs Monoamine precursors