Session Information
Date: Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Session Title: Cognition and Psychiatry
Session Time: 12:00pm-1:30pm
Objective: To explore the relationships between nigrostriatal dysfunction and both neuropsychiatric (including anxiety, depression and apathy) and cognitive symptoms in newly diagnosed, drug-naive Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients as compared to a cohort of healthy controls (HC) and to verify if striatal dopamine depletion is associated with Mild Cognitive Impairment in PD (PD-MCI).
Background: Conflicting data are available on the association between neuropsychiatric symptoms and dopamine depletion in PD.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional analysis of the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) cohort at baseline, including 405 PD patients and 187 HC. Nigrostriatal degeneration was evaluated by means of SPECT DAT scan. Relationships between neuropsychiatric and cognitive tests and DAT uptakes were analysed by means of stepwise multiple regression analysis.
Results: In the PD group, lower DAT uptake in the right caudate was associated with higher State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) total score (β=-5.127, 95%CI: -8.424 to -1.829, p=0.002) and higher STAI trait subscore (β=-2.939, 95%CI: -4.634 to -1.254, p=0.001). Furthermore, in the PD group, lower left caudate uptake was associated with lower processing-speed attention scores (β=1.775, 95%CI: 0.407 to 3.143, p=0.011), while lower right caudate uptake was associated with lower memory scores (β=0,545, 95%CI: 0,131 to 0.959, p=0.01). PD-MCI was not associated with dopaminergic depletion.
Conclusions: Our cross-sectional analysis of the PPMI data shows that lower caudate DAT uptake is associated with higher level of anxiety and worse performance in processing speed-attention and memory tasks. The data strengthens the relationship between dopaminergic dysfunction and both neuropsychiatric and cognitive symptoms in early PD. Prospective analysis of the PPMI cohort will shed light on the relationship between striatal dopaminergic dysfunction and PD-MCI.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
M. Picillo, G. Santangelo, R. Erro, A. Cozzolino, M. Amboni, C. Vitale, P. Barone, M.T. Pellecchia. Anxiety and cognition are associated with dopaminergic dysfunction in de novo Parkinson’s disease [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2016; 31 (suppl 2). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/anxiety-and-cognition-are-associated-with-dopaminergic-dysfunction-in-de-novo-parkinsons-disease/. Accessed June 14, 2025.« Back to 2016 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/anxiety-and-cognition-are-associated-with-dopaminergic-dysfunction-in-de-novo-parkinsons-disease/