Objective: To examine the prevalences and profiles of depressive symptoms in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients and population-based control groups by using the Beck depression inventory.

Background: Depression is a predictor for quality of life in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Diagnostic challenges include the overlap of somatic symptoms of depression and Parkinson’s disease.

Methods: After a postal screening of 10.000 inhabitants of Luebeck, Germany, 720 individuals were examined and PD diagnostic criteria evaluated. We applied the Unified Parkinson’s disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) as a self-rating. According to clinical impression, the questions of the BDI were grouped into the four subscales ‘mood’, ‘negative cognitions’, ‘somatic symptoms’ and ‘lack of energy’. Means of subscores were compared and relative proportions (subscore:total score) were calculated.

Results: Our sample comprised 385 men and 344 women (mean age 66+/-8 years) including 283 healthy controls (HC), 260 disease controls (DC) with motor impairment due to other conditions, 74 subjects with mild Parkinsonian signs (MPS), and 112 PD patients. A BDI≥9 was present in 35% of healthy controls, 51% of disease controls, 42 % of MPS, and 43% of PD patients (p=0.031). Means of the subscores ‘somatic symptoms’ and ‘lack of energy’ were higher in PD patients compared to healthy controls; means of all subscores were increased in the DC group. The relative proportion of the subscore ‘mood’ was greater in PD patients compared to healthy controls (p=0.025). Relative proportions of somatic symptoms increased with advancing age with no differences between groups.

Conclusions: Surprisingly, we evaluated a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms in our motor impaired control group than in PD patients. Therefore, further investigations of the association of motor impairment and depression are desirable and could provide new insights, in particular regarding the common hypothesis of depression being an integral part of Parkinson’s disease. Furthermore, we could not confirm the presumption that depressive symptoms in PD patients are mainly explained by somatic symptoms in comparison to other control groups at the same age.

9. Deutscher Parkinson-Kongress, 16th-18th April 2015, Berlin, Germany.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/profile-of-depressive-symptoms-in-parkinsons-disease-patients-and-a-population-based-elderly-cohort/