No impact of confinement during COVID-19 pandemic on anxiety and depression in Parkinsonian patients.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Governments around the world have imposed varied containment measures to curb the spread of the COVID-19 infection. The psychological impact could be highly negative in patients with neurologic condition like Parkinson's Disease (PD). METHODS: We prospectively evaluated symptoms of depression and anxiety in 50 (26 females; mean age at 60.4) non demented Moroccan PD patients, using Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), at the beginning and after 6 weeks of a full confinement. RESULTS: At the first evaluation, 28% of patients had depression while 32% had anxiety. After 6 weeks of confinement, some patients got worse and others got better scores but no significant statistical difference for both troubles was seen. CONCLUSION: Our results show that there is no significant impact of 6 weeks of confinement on overall anxiety and depression scores. However, confinement could have an unexpected positive psychological impact on a significant number of PD patients.