Objective: To examine the relationship between impulse-compulsive disorders (ICDs) and non-motor symptom profiles in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Background: ICDs are recognized non-motor complications of PD, but their relationship with non-motor phenotypes remains insufficiently characterized, particularly in underrepresented populations.

Method: We conducted a cross-sectional observational study for patients with PD. ICDs were assessed using the Questionnaire for Impulsive-Compulsive Disorders in Parkinson’s Disease-Rating Scale (QUIP-RS), and non-motor symptoms were evaluated using the Non-Motor Symptoms Scale (NMSS). Correlations were analyzed between ICD severity and NMSS total and domain scores. Dominant non-motor phenotypes were also examined in ICD-positive patients.

Results: Among 71 patients, 37 (52.1%) had ICDs. The most frequently reported ICD manifestations were compulsive eating (72.1%), compulsive medication use (45.9%), and compulsive shopping (16.2%). Among ICD-positive patients, dominant non-motor phenotypes were depression-dominant in 32.4%, cognitive-dominant in 32.4%, autonomic-dominant in 21.6%, and sleep-dominant in 13.5%; none had an absence of non-motor symptoms. ICD severity showed a weak positive, non-significant correlation with NMSS total score (r=0.19, p=0.11). No significant correlations were found with cardiovascular (r=0.14, p=0.24), sleep/fatigue (r=0.06, p=0.59), mood/cognition (r=0.09, p=0.43), perceptual problems/hallucinations (r=0.17, p=0.16), gastrointestinal tract (r=0.02, p=0.89), or urinary (r=0.08, p=0.48) NMSS domains. A significant positive correlation was observed between ICD severity and the attention/memory domain (r=0.325, p=0.006).

Conclusion: In this PD cohort, ICDs were frequent, with compulsive eating as the predominant manifestation. ICD-positive patients most commonly showed depressive and cognitive dominant profiles, followed by autonomic and sleep-dominant phenotypes, and all had non-motor symptoms. While ICD severity was not significantly associated with total NMSS burden or with most NMSS domains, it was significantly correlated with the attention/memory domain. These findings suggest that ICDs in PD may be associated with selected non-motor profiles, particularly cognitive and affective features, rather than with global non-motor burden alone.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/impulse-compulsive-disorders-and-non-motor-symptom-profiles-in-parkinsons-disease-findings-from-a-tunisian-cohort/