Objective: Aim of the present study was to determine the relationship of alexithymia on HR-QoL of the PwP and caregiver burden of the corresponding primary caregiver.

Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most frequent neurodegenerative disease of the elderly. People with PD (PwP) suffer from motor- and non-motor symptoms, resulting in reduced health-related quality of life (HR-QoL). In the last two decades alexithymia was identified as additional non-motor symptom in PD. Alexithymia is defined as a cognitive affective disturbance resulting in difficulty to identify and distinguish feelings from bodily sensations of emotional arousal. In PD alexithymia is more than two times as frequent as in health controls. Further, alexithymia is associated with reduced HR-QoL in PwP.

Method: This cross-sectional questionnaire-based study used disease specific questionnaires for HR-QoL (e.g. Parkinson’s disease questionnaire 8) and caregiver burden (e.g. Parkinson’s disease caregiver burden questionnaire).

Results: In total 119 PwP and their corresponding caregivers were included in the study. HR-QoL of the PwP correlated significant with alexithymia, especially the sub-components “identifying feelings” and “difficulties describing feelings” correlated significant with HR-QoL. Caregiver burden also correlated significantly with PwP alexithymia, however, caregiver burden was more associated with sub-component “identifying feelings” and “external oriented thinking”.

Conclusion: These data support the importance of alexithymia as additional non-motor symptom in PD. Psychological interventions to reduce alexithymia in PwP are needed to improve HR-QoL and decrease caregiver burden.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/alexithymia-is-associated-with-worse-quality-of-life-and-caregiver-burden-in-people-with-parkinsons-disease/