Objective: This study aims to explore the prevalence and onset age-related difference of executive dysfunctions and behavioral changes in drug-naïve patients with early stage of Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Background: The clinical features of executive dysfunctions and behavioral changes in Chinese patients with PD has not been reported.

Methods: A cross-sectional analysis on 419 early stage drug-naïve PD patients was conducted. The frontal assessment battery (FAB) was used to assess executive functions and the frontal behavioral inventory (FBI) was used to assess behavioral changes.

Results: Executive dysfunctions were detected in 221 patients (52.7%), and 219 patients (52.3%) displayed varied degrees of behavioral changes, with 88 patients (40.2%) having mild behavioral changes, 115 patients (52.5%) having moderate behavioral changes, and 16 patients (7.3%) having severe behavioral changes. The most frequent affected domain for the FAB was go-no go task (45.6%), while the three most frequent affected domains for the FBI were apathy (26.0%), irritability (24.3%) and inattention (20.8%). Compared to the early-onset PD (EOPD) patients, the late-onset PD (LOPD) patients exhibited lower FAB total score and higher prevalence of total FAB-abnormal (P < 0.05) as well as higher prevalence of inattention from the FBI (P < 0.05) after adjusting for age and Unified PD Rating Scale (UPDRS) III score.

Conclusions: Executive deficits and behavioral changes are common in the early stage of PD. The LOPD patients may experience with more severe and more frequent executive dysfunctions as well as more frequent behavioral changes like inattention than the EOPD patients.

« Back to 2018 International Congress

MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/executive-dysfunctions-and-behavioral-changes-in-early-drug-naive-patients-with-parkinsons-disease/