ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: We aimed to examine neuropsychiatric symptoms of patients with early and advanced stage Parkinson's disease (PD). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was performed at Kocatepe University Neurology Department in Turkey, comprised 46 PD patients and 46 controls. Hoehn-Yahr (HY) scale was used to evaluate the clinical stages of PD and Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) was used to evaluate the severity of clinical signs. Cognitive functions were evaluated by Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and neuropsychiatric findings were evaluated by Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS), and Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS). RESULTS: Significant difference was determined between BDI values of patients (13.28 ± 9.04) and control group (9.71 ± 5.19) (P = 0.02). Significant difference was determined with SANS (23.84 ± 15.42, 2.58 ± 3.13, P < 0.001) but not with SAPS (1.36 ± 4.16, 0.15 ± 0.43, P = 0.07). The patients were evaluated according to the HY stages and there was no significant difference between mild and severe symptom groups in respect of BDI, SAPS, and SANS values (P = 0.91, P = 0.31, and P = 0.29). According to gender, no significant difference was found between groups in respect of BDI, SAPS, and SANS values (P = 0.60, P = 0.54, and P = 0.67). No correlation was found between BDI, SAPS, SANS values, and HY stages. CONCLUSION: Higher rates of depression and negative symptoms were observed in patients with PD compared with healthy individuals. Results did not differ with different stages of PD. Therefore, it should be kept in mind that neuropsychiatric symptoms can be seen from the early stages of the disease and should be treated earlier.
Subject(s)
Depression/diagnosis , Parkinson Disease/psychology , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales/statistics & numerical data , Psychotic Disorders/psychology , Aged , Depression/psychology , Depressive Disorder , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Parkinson Disease/diagnosis , Psychotic Disorders/diagnosis , Severity of Illness IndexABSTRACT
Autonomic nerve system is considered to be involved in bipolar affective disorder (BAD) or to be influenced by valproate monotherapy or valproate plus lithium combination. We planned to assess the effects of medication on atrial and ventricular conduction. The electrocardiography records were performed with eligible 15 patients with valproate, 20 patients with lithium-valproate combination use in euthymic phases of BAD and 20 healthy participants. The blood valproate and lithium concentrations in groups were in normal range. The difference in P maximum, P minimum, maximum QTc were statistically insignificant. Minimum QTc (F = 6.36; df = 2; P = 0.003) and QT dispersion (QTD) (F = 5.57; df = 2; P = 0.006) were statistically significant among the groups. There were no significant differences between patient groups among ECG parameters. Minimum QTc was significantly longer in combination group than healthy controls, whereas the QTD values in both patient groups were significantly lower than controls'. Valproate might have some preventive effects on ventricular electrical conduction because of lower QTD in both patient groups. Thus, valproate seems to have cardiac conduction stabilizing effect beside its mood stabilizing aspect. However, this finding needs replication and further corroboration in well-designed studies.
