Mild Behavioral Impairment in Parkinson’s Disease: Data from the Parkinson’s Disease Cognitive Impairment Study (PACOS)

Abstract

Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) have been frequently described in Parkinson’s disease (PD), even in the earliest stages of the disease. Recently the construct of mild behavioral impairment (MBI) has been proposed as an at-risk state for incident cognitive decline and dementia. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the prevalence and associated factors of MBI in PD. Cross-sectional data from 429 consecutive PD patients enrolled in the PArkinson’s disease COgnitive impairment Study (PACOS) were included in the study. All subjects underwent neuropsychological assessment, according to the MDS Level II criteria. NPS were evaluated with the Neuropsychiatric Inventory. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to evaluate clinical and behavioral characteristics, which are associated with PD-MBI. The latter was ascertained in 361 (84.1%) subjects of whom 155 (36.1%) were newly diagnosed patients (disease duration ≤1 year) and 206 (48.0%) had a disease duration >1 year. Furthermore, 68 (15.9%) out of 429 subjects were PDw (without MBI). Across the MBI domains, Impulse Dyscontrol was significantly more prevalent among PD-MBI with disease duration >1 year than newly diagnosed patients. The frequency of Social Inappropriateness and Abnormal Perception significantly increased throughout the entire PD-MBI sample with increasing Hoehn and Yahr (H&Y) stages. PD-MBI in newly diagnosed PD was significantly associated with H&Y stage (OR 2.35, 95% CI 1.05–5.24) and marginally with antidepressant drug use (OR 2.94, 95% CI 0.91–9.47), while in patients with a disease duration >1 year was associated with UPDRS-ME (OR 3.37, 95% CI 1.41–8.00). The overall MBI frequency in the PACOS sample was 84% and 36% among newly diagnosed patients. The presence of MBI mainly related to motor impairment and disability.