An evaluation of neuropsychiatric symptoms in Parkinson's disease patients.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to examine neuropsychiatric symptoms of patients with early and advanced stage Parkinson's disease (PD).

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was performed at Kocatepe University Neurology Department in Turkey, comprised 46 PD patients and 46 controls. Hoehn-Yahr (HY) scale was used to evaluate the clinical stages of PD and Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) was used to evaluate the severity of clinical signs. Cognitive functions were evaluated by Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and neuropsychiatric findings were evaluated by Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS), and Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS).

RESULTS: Significant difference was determined between BDI values of patients (13.28 ± 9.04) and control group (9.71 ± 5.19) (P = 0.02). Significant difference was determined with SANS (23.84 ± 15.42, 2.58 ± 3.13, P < 0.001) but not with SAPS (1.36 ± 4.16, 0.15 ± 0.43, P = 0.07). The patients were evaluated according to the HY stages and there was no significant difference between mild and severe symptom groups in respect of BDI, SAPS, and SANS values (P = 0.91, P = 0.31, and P = 0.29). According to gender, no significant difference was found between groups in respect of BDI, SAPS, and SANS values (P = 0.60, P = 0.54, and P = 0.67). No correlation was found between BDI, SAPS, SANS values, and HY stages.

CONCLUSION: Higher rates of depression and negative symptoms were observed in patients with PD compared with healthy individuals. Results did not differ with different stages of PD. Therefore, it should be kept in mind that neuropsychiatric symptoms can be seen from the early stages of the disease and should be treated earlier.