Apathy and neuropsychological characteristics of newly diagnosed Parkinson's disease patients

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Objective To investigate the apathy and neuropsychological characteristics of newly diagnosed Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. Methods Eighty-two newly diagnosed PD patients and 30 matched healthy controls by age, sex and education level were recruited in the present study.Apathy was assessed using Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES) and related factors, including age, sex, education level and disease duration were simultaneously evaluated.Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD), as well as Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) were employed in order to respectively evaluate the motor function, depression and cognition. Results The AES scores in the PD patients were significantly higher when compared to the healthy controls. The prevalence of apathy and depression in the PD patients was 51.2%(42/82) and 19.5%(16/82), respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in age, sex, education level, UPDRS-Ⅱ/Ⅲ scores and MoCA scores between apathy (n=42) and no-apathy (n=40) PD patients (P>0.05), while the statistically significant difference in HAMD scores between apathy (n=42) and no-apathy (n=40)PD patients was shown (the HAMD scores of apathy PD patients were 10.61±3.30, the HAMD scores of no-apathy PD patients were 5.96±1.90, t=7.87, P<0.05). The correlation analysis indicated that there were no correlations between AES scores and the related factors, including age, education level, disease duration and UPDRS-Ⅱ/Ⅲ scores, but AES scores were positively correlated with HAMD scores. Conclusion In newly diagnosed PD patients, the apathy is independent of depression, motor dysfunction, as well as cognitive impairment, which may be an early signal for PD. Key words: Parkinson disease; Apathy; Neuropsychological test; Newly diagnosed