This article presents the different pharmacological classes and therapeutic strategies employed at the different stages of Parkinson's disease. To date, only symptomatic treatments exist. Levodopa remains the most effective treatment with the best benefit-risk ratio. It is the initial treatment of choice for most patients. In order to delay the onset of motor complications, such as dyskinesia or end-of-dose akinesia, dopamine agonists or monoamine oxidase B inhibitors may be proposed as first-line treatment to young patients with mild disability. Motor fluctuations can be improved by adjusting the levodopa dosing frequency or by adding a dopamine agonist, monoamine oxidase inhibitor, or catechol-O-methyltransferase inhibitor. Disabling dyskinesias can be improved by reducing the levodopa dose or using amantadine. Patients with severe motor complications may benefit from a treatment with Duodopa® or subcutaneous apomorphine.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many patients have been admitted to intensive care units, thereby highlighting the work of a medical specialty that is often little or poorly known to the public. In these patients, respiratory failure, falling within the definition of acute respiratory distress syndrome, had to be managed using non-invasive and invasive oxygenation and ventilation techniques, and in the most severe cases, using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. These heavy treatments, combined with complicated mobilization techniques (prone position) and other usual intensive care treatments, had to be delivered simultaneously to a large number of patients with a guarded prognosis, which has put under significant pressure the bedside care teams.

Managing the health crisis we are facing goes far beyond managing the coronavirus epidemic. The lockdown measures implemented in response to the virus propagation have resulted in broad medical and societal impacts. In addition to the epidemic, an “infodemic” has been generated and is now spreading. For most individuals, this enormous and incessant flow of true and false information is difficult to manage. Moreover, academic physicians now occupy the media space, a situation they are not familiar with. In an academic effort to draw the attention of the Belgian government and experts to the central role of social sciences and humanities in getting out of the crisis, a neurologist has partnered with media sociologists as well as a psychologist specialized in anxiety disorders to better understand the impact of (mis-)information on people’s behavior, with a particular focus on the differences that exist between the general public and health professionals.