Objective: This study aimed to assess the impact of early depression on motor deficits relative to the level of striatal dopaminergic depletion in patients with de novo Parkinson’s disease.

Background: Depression frequently accompanies Parkinson’s disease and often precedes the onset of motor symptoms.

Methods: We analyzed the data of 474 non-demented patients with de novo Parkinson’s disease (mean age, 64.6 ± 9.8 years; 242 men) who underwent both dopamine transporter scan and depression assessment using the Beck Depression Inventory.

Results: Patients were classified into tertile groups by Beck Depression Inventory score. The high tertile group (Beck Depression Inventory score ≥15, n = 157) showed more severe motor deficits and lower cognitive function than the low tertile group (Beck Depression Inventory score ≤7, n = 158; p = 0.025 and p = 0.008, respectively). Parkinson’s disease motor subtypes differed among the three tertile groups (p = 0.007); more patients with the postural instability/ gait difficulty subtype (49.7%) were included in the high tertile group than in the low tertile group (32.3%). However, dopamine transporter bindings in striatal subregions were similar among the three groups. After controlling for dopamine transporter binding in the posterior putamen as well as age, sex, symptom duration, Parkinson’s disease motor subtype, and Mini-Mental State Examination score, the lowtertile group exhibited fewer motor deficits thanthe other groups.

Conclusions: These results demonstrate that depression level influences motor deficit severity relative to the striatal dopamine depletion level in early Parkinson’s disease and suggest that the absence of depression in de novo Parkinson’s disease is a benign motor phenotype.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/absence-of-depression-in-de-novo-parkinsons-disease-a-benign-motor-phenotype/