Focusing on weight loss in patients with Parkinson's disease / 中华神经科杂志

ABSTRACT

Nowadays more and more attention has been attracted to non-motor symptoms (NMS), which are negatively associated with the life quality of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD).Weight loss, one of commonly observed NMS , interacts with other motor and NMS , complicating the disease progression. Weight loss may occur during the whole course of PD , even several years before the onset of motor symptoms, ensuing clinical problems such as malnutrition , bone fracture and infection , and inducing an increased risk of dyskinesia.Increasing evidence demonstrated that metabolic manipulation may provide a promising disease-modifying therapeutic alternative in future management of PD .Accordingly, monitoring and managing weight loss in PD is of great importance in clinical practice .Although weight loss is commonly documented, it is neglected frequently up to now.Hence, we present current knowledge of weight loss in the context of PD, aiming to appeal clinicians and researchers to pay a closer attention to this phenomena and enable better management and therapeutic strategies in future clinical practice.