Objective: To compare the bipolarity and affective temperament scores between patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and healthy controls.

Background: Mood disorders are the most common psychiatric comorbidity in PD, and approximately half of the patients with PD experience depression(1).Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic mood disorder characterized with manic and depressive episodes involving significant changes in energy, mood and behavior. Dopaminergic disturbance is thought to be an important factor in the etiology of BD, which is the principle pathology of PD. Affective temperament is the subclinical manifestation of mood disorders,and temperament scores found to be higher in mood disorders which has an impact on the course of disease(2).

Methods: Forty-seven adults with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease, and 30 age-matched healthy controls that provided written informed consent were enrolled the study. Socio-demographic data of all participants, and disease characteristics such as the duration of disease, initial symptoms, treatments, and modified Hoehn and Yahr scores in the patient group were recorded via face-to- face interviews. All participants completed the Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego-autoquestionnaire version (TEMPS-A) for evaluation of affective temperament, Hypomania Checklist-32(HCL-32) and Mood Disorders Questionnaire(MDQ) to screen bipolarity.

Results: There was no difference between patients and controls in terms of age (p>0.05) and gender (p>0.05). MDQ scores were significantly higher in PD group than controls(p=0.009) while HCL-32 scores were similar (p=0.045). 10.6% patients(n=5) with PD had positive bipolarity scores according to MDQ. When we compared affective temperamental features, we found that depressive(p=0.004), cyclothymic(p=0.014), anxious(p=0.001) and irritable(p=0.03) temperament scores were significantly higher in PD patients than controls. However, hyperthymic temperament scores were found to be higher in control group than PD (p=0.001).

Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study aiming to evaluate bipolarity and affective temperament in PD. Our findings indicate that, not only depression but also the signs of bipolar disorders are common in PD patients than controls. Higher affective temperament scores are also consistent with the mood scales considering temperament as a subclinical manifestation of mood disorders. Higher scores of hyperthymia in controls than PD patients require further evaluation.

References: 1. Marsh L. Depression and Parkinson’s Disease: Current Knowledge. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep.2013 Dec;13(12):409. 2. Costa J, García-Blanco A, Cañada Y, García-Portilla MP, Safont G, Arranz B, Sanchez-Autet M, Livianos L, Fornés-Ferrer V, Sierra P. Are affective temperaments determinants of quality of life in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder? J Affect Disord. 2018 Apr 1;230:101-107.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/evaluation-of-affective-temperament-and-bipolarity-among-patients-with-parkinson-s-disease/