Objective: As a first step toward this aim, this study attempted to identify correlation patterns among the motor, cognitive, and neuropsychiatric symptoms in PD without dementia.

Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is clinically characterized by a variety of motor and non-motor symptoms, including cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms. Integrating a large variety of symptoms into a small number of clinical subtypes could be valuable for appropriate and early therapeutic intervention.

Methods: Ninety-five non-demented patients with PD underwent a comprehensive motor (Unified PD rating scale), neuropsychological, and neuropsychiatric (Neuropsychiatric Inventory) assessment. Factor analysis was performed to identify correlation patterns among demographic, motor, cognitive, and neuropsychiatric variables.

Results: The following eight factors were extracted: two distinct motor-related factors (i.e. bradykinesia, tremor), three cognition-related factors (i.e. visuospatial function, attention/working memory, cognitive speed), and three neuropsychiatric factors (i.e. impulse control, mood/psychosis, misperception/psychosis). We found several associations between motor, cognitive, and neuropsychiatric symptoms: impulse control symptoms were associated with more severe akinetic-rigid type motor symptoms; misidentification/psychosis was associated with milder memory impairment; and tremor was associated with better attention/working memory and milder delusional misidentification symptoms.

Conclusions: These results suggest that a broad range of motor and non-motor symptoms in PD may be reducible to a small number of clinical subtypes.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/correlations-among-motor-cognitive-and-neuropsychiatric-symptoms-in-parkinsons-disease-without-dementia/