Abstract
BackgroundCognitive impairment is one of the non-motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease (PD). In the present study, we aim to examine the cognitive function of non-demented Parkinson’s disease patients and compare the results between male and female patients as well as control groups in search of any gender effect.MethodsSixty PD Patients (30 males and 30 females) from the Movement Disorders Clinic at Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University were recruited to participate in the study. One hundred age and gender matched control subjects without neurological or psychiatric disorders were voluntarily recruited. The participants were administered measures of cognition in five domains including memory, language, spatial processing abilities, attention and executive function.ResultsPD patients attained significantly lower scores in the visual spatial function, language and attention/executive function compared with the control group. Anti-parkinsonian treated patients performed worse in Rey-copy score, Clock Drawing Test (CDT) and Verbal Fluency-City than untreated ones. In regard to gender differences, though no general cognitive differences were found in Mini-mental State Examination (MMSE), men surpassed women on Boston naming test (BNT) while women were superior on Auditory Verbal Learning Test-long (AVLT) delayed cued recall test.ConclusionsCognitive impairments were common in PD patients even in the absence of dementia. PD patients with anti-parkinsonian medication had worse cognitive impairment than untreated patients. Genders may have different manifestations of cognitive impairment in PD patients.
Highlights
Cognitive impairment is one of the non-motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease (PD)
The current study examined the five domains of cognitive function in non-demented PD patients who were not treated with anticholinergic medications and normal controls, with special emphasis on the comparison between male and female patients
There was no significant difference between male and female patients, with respect to age, education, years of illness duration, mean Unified PD Rating Scale (UPDRS)-III score, proportion of treatment, levodopa equivalent dose or disease severity
Summary
Cognitive impairment is one of the non-motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease (PD). We aim to examine the cognitive function of non-demented Parkinson’s disease patients and compare the results between male and female patients as well as control groups in search of any gender effect. Cognitive impairment is a major non-motor symptoms, which greatly influence the quality of life [1]. The current study examined the five domains of cognitive function in non-demented PD patients who were not treated with anticholinergic medications and normal controls, with special emphasis on the comparison between male and female patients. We performed sub-group analysis regarding medical treatment of PD patients, aiming to eliminate the possible confounding effects of medication and making the groups more comparable. As the effect of anti-parkinsonism medication on cognitive function was complicated and controversial [13,14,15]
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