Objective: To develop a picture-based, non-verbal screening tool to detect neuropsychiatric syndromes (NPS), including depression, anxiety, apathy, fatigue, mania, impulse control disorder (ICD), sleeping problems, and visual hallucinations in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Background: NPS are common in PD with a significant impact on quality of life. Self-report questionnaires to detect NPS are time-consuming and mainly language-based, making an adequate assessment impossible in patients with speech disturbances, language barriers, or cognitive impairment.

Method: Based on a literature review and clinical experience, we developed the patient-completed Cologne Inventory for the non-verbal assessment of neuropsychiatric syndromes (German: “KINO-NPS”), including 27 items. Reliability analysis using Cronbach’s alpha and Spearman correlation analyses between subscales of the KINO-NPS and corresponding language-based scales to determine convergent validity were performed. We assessed the following language-based scales: Beck-Depression-Inventory, Questionnaire for Impulsive-Compulsive Disorders (QUIP-RS), Apathy Evaluation Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Self-Report Manic Inventory (SRMI), Fatigue Scale for Motor and Cognitive Function, and Prodromal Questionnaire.

Results: To date, 70 healthy controls and 30 patients with PD were included in the study. Preliminary item analysis revealed that most items met standard criteria regarding item difficulty, item variance, and item-total correlation. In healthy controls, reliability analysis indicated acceptable levels of internal consistency for all subscales (all α>.72). In PD patients, the internal consistency was α>.79 for all subscales except for the mania subscale (α=0.62). In the overall cohort, KINO-NPS depression, apathy, anxiety, and fatigue strongly correlated with corresponding language-based scales (all r>.53, all p<.001). A moderate correlation was found for the subscale ICD with the QUIP-RS (r=.30, p=.004). Mania did not show a significant correlation with the SRMI.

Conclusion: The preliminary results suggest that the picture-based KINO-NPS might be a time-efficient, reliable, and valid tool to detect NPS in patients with PD. The KINO-NPS is currently further validated, and cut-off values to determine dysfunctions need to be established.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/development-and-preliminary-results-of-a-new-picture-based-self-rating-tool-for-neuropsychiatric-syndromes-in-parkinsons-disease/