Objective: To describe the relation of depressive symptoms with cognitive performance in our cohort at baseline and two-year follow-up.

Background: Cognitive function (CF) is frequent in the course of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and contributes to a reduced quality of life and independency. Similarly, in the general elderly population CF is an important parameter for independency. The clinical evaluation of CF can be hampered e.g. by the parallel presence of depressive symptoms.

Methods: Based on a population screening we examined 759 subjects (141 PD patients). As screening tools we performed the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) for CF and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) for depressive symptoms. We applied Pearson’s correlation for comparison.

Results: The mean MoCA score in our cohort was 24.7±3.6 (PD 22.7±4.3) at baseline and 25.8±3.3 (PD 24.2±4.4) after two years. The mean BDI score was 9.5±8.0 (PD 9.8±7.5) at baseline and 8.1±7.0 (PD 11.2±9.1) at follow-up. MoCA and BDI correlated only in PD patients (r=-.040, p=.192, PD r=-.243, p=.013) at baseline, but not (r=-.033, p=.301, PD r=-.114, p=.337) at follow-up. Changes in both scores after two years did not correlate (r=.024, p=.358; PD r=-0.090, p=.379).

Conclusions: In our cohort, the MoCA scores seem to be largely unaffected by depressive symptoms reported in the BDI. This finding is contradictory to clinical observations and may be explained by the predominantly mild depressive symptoms in our cohort and the outpatient setting. Follow-up examinations in participants with more severe depressive symptoms will help to test this hypothesis.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/cognitive-function-and-self-reported-depressive-symptoms-in-a-population-based-cohort-to-study-non-motor-symptoms-of-parkinsons-disease/