Weight Loss in Parkinson's Disease: The Relationship with Motor Symptoms and Disease Progression.

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of weight loss (WL) in PD patients, its relationship to the severity of motor manifestations and appetite changes.

Methods: 144 PD patients and 120 controls were evaluated in a single session. All subjects were asked about changes in body weight and appetite. PD patients were examined with the UPDRS-III and the Hoehn and Yahr (HY) scales. Subscores of tremor, bradykinesia /rigidity, and non-dopaminergic symptoms (NDS) were analyzed individually. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to determine an association between WL and PD motor manifestations.

Results: 48.6 % of PD patients presented WL compared to 20.8 % of controls (p < 0.001). Weight losers were significantly older and had longer disease duration, higher scores in HY stages, UPDRS-III, and NDS-subscore. Multivariable logistic regression analysis demonstrated that WL was associated with NDS-subscore (p= 0.002; OR: 1.33) and older age (p= 0.037; OR: 1.05). Appetite in PD cases losing weight was unchanged (35.7 %), decreased (31.4 %), or even increased (32.9).

Conclusions: Our results showed that WL occurs in almost half of PD patients and it is largely the consequence of disease progression rather than involuntary movements or a decrease in food intake.