Objective: to determine the Impact of non-pharmacological strategies on progression in Parkinson’s Disease and Cognitive Impairment.

Background: PD is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, affecting >1% of the population ≥65 years of age and with a prevalence set to double by 2030. In addition to the defining motor symptoms of PD¹, multiple non-motor symptoms occur; among them, cognitive impairment is common and can potentially occur at any disease stage, which is why multiple pharmacological and non-pharmacological strategies (NPT) have been developed over time to improve or delay its onset.. One of these NPT is the aerobic exercise, sice it exerts neurorestorative and neuro-protective effects, possibly through regulation of neurotrophic factors to support synapse formation and angiogenesis, thus inhibiting oxidative stress and improving mitochondrial function. Aerobic exercise is a very popular treatment for the function recovery, and it has positive effects on motor, quality of life, cognition and the emotions of PD patients and even animals²

Method: the present study was observational, longitudinal and analytical. CI was evaluated using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), while the progression of motor symptoms was assessed with section 3 of the UPDRS. Independent simples t-test was used to compare the means of MoCA, UPDRS3, date of the first visit and date of second visit, and years with (NPS) prior to each visit.. Both questionaires scores were taken at two different visits, with a specific time between them, to observe the behavior between both visits. Considering only those patients who had a non-pharmacological strategy

Results: We included 39 patients who underwent some type of NPT (53.8% female; general mean age 63.1 years in first visit and 64.7 years un second visit). The means UPDRS3 scores at visit 1 and visit 2 were 28.41± and 30.49±, respectively (p=0.28), so no significance was observed. The means total MoCA scores at visit 1 and visit 2 were 21.5±5.4 and 23.6±4.3, respectively (p=0.00) which does represent significance.

Conclusion: the onset of NBS is associated with improvement in the MoCA total score. It should be noted that the motor progression of the disease did not show improvement with respect to NBS; however, it is necessary to increase the number of visits to observe the evolution of PD with greater precision.

References: 1. Aarsland D, Batzu L, M Halliday G, Geurtsen GJ, Clive C, K Ray Chaudhuri B, Weintraub D. Parkinson disease-associated cognitive impairment. J Neural Transm. 2021;7(1):1-22. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41572-021-00280-3

2. Fenga YS, Yangb,c SD, Tana ZX, Wanga MM, Xinga Y, Feng Zhanga,e FD. The benefits and mechanisms of exercise training for Parkinson’s disease. ELSEVIER. 2020;245:1-10. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0024320520300928?via%3Dihub

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/impact-of-non-pharmacological-strategies-on-progression-in-parkinsons-disease-and-cognitive-impairment/