Effect of emotion on the cognitive function of patients with mild to moderate Parkinson's disease

Abstract

Objective To explore the effect of anxiety and depression on cognitive function in patients with mild to moderate Parkinson's disease (PD). Methods A total of 71 patients with primary PD were enrolled in this study. Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) and Hoehn-Yahr stage were used to evaluate the severity of the disease. Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (14-item version, HAMA-14) and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (24-item version, HAMD-24) were used to evaluate the anxiety and depression. Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA, Beijing version) were used to evaluate the cognitive function. The impact of anxiety and depression on cognitive function was analyzed.  Results All of these patients were diagnosed as mild to moderate PD, including 61 patients (85.92% ) with anxiety, 55 patients (77.46% ) with depression and 52 patients (73.24% ) with concurrent anxiety and depression. The UPDRS score of patients with anxiety and depression were significantly higher than that of patients without anxiety (P = 0.016) or depression (P = 0.000). The MoCA score of PD patients with anxiety were significantly lower than that of patients without anxiety (P = 0.042). Among 71 patients, there were 49 cases (69.01% ) with cognitive dysfunction, including 28 patients (39.44% ) with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 21 cases (29.58% ) with dementia. There was no statistical difference of HAMA-14 and HAMD-24 scores among PD patients with different cognitive levels (P > 0.05, for all). Logistic regression analysis showed only anxiety was the independent risk factor for cognitive dysfunction of PD patients (OR = 10.816, 95%CI: 1.682-69.560; P = 0.012). Conclusions The illness of PD patients accompanied by anxiety or depression is more serious. PD patients with anxiety have higher prevalence of cognitive dysfunction.

DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1672-6731.2016.02.006