Objective: The objective of the study was to assess the psychotic symptoms associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and to establish statistical correlations with sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of PD.

Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is recognized for both its motor and non-motor symptoms. While there are a variety of non-motor symptoms, psychiatric disturbances remain often overlooked despite their common occurrence and significant impact on daily functioning.

Method: We conducted a transversal population-based study of patients followed in the department of Neurology of Charles Nicolle hospital of Tunisia for PD.

We were able to specify psychotic disorders using a semi-structured interview based on DSM-IV. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 18.

Results: Our study included 30 patients with PD. The average age of our patients was 64.17+-9 years with a sex ratio of 0.66.

A revealing psychiatric clinical picture was observed in 36.7% of patients.

Psychotic signs were reported by 43.3% patients. Hallucinations were found in 33.3%. They were predominantly visual=90% associated with auditory=40% and tactile=10%.

Delusion was noted in 10%, divided into ideas of persecution=60%, references=20% and jealousy=20%. In fact, Fénelon and al reported that the frequency of delirium varies from 1 to 14%. In our study, psychotic symptoms and patients sociodemographic characteristics, age of disease onset and L-dopa daily dose, were statistically independent.

Conclusion: Our study analyzed meticulously the various aspects of psychotic disorders in PD. As perspectives, further antipsychotic trials in patients with psychosis in PD are required.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/psychotic-features-in-patients-with-parkinsons-disease/