Objective: To investigate the clinical features of NMS in PSP patients and analyze the influences on the burden of the caregivers.

Background: NMS was wildly accepted as significant clinical symptom in PD and related with quality of life. Recently some researchers tend to pay attention to the frequency, severity and the type of NMS in PSP patients. However, studies about the relationship between clinical features and the burden of caregivers is insufficient.

Method: We enrolled 20 PSP patients (included 14 PSP-RS and 6 PSP-P, excluded patients with sever cognitive dysfunction that could not complete the scales) and 20 age- and gender-matched PD patient in this study. Motor and Non Motor symptoms were evaluated using the PSP rating scale(PSPRS, for PSP patients), Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS, for PD patients), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA), Mini-mental State Examination (MMSE), Non Motor Symptom scale (NMSS) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living scale (IADL) . Burden of the caregivers was determined by using Zarit Caregiver Burden Interview (ZBI).

Results: Total NMSS scores was obviously higher in PSP than PD(Mann-Whitney U test: P = 0.018). The most frequent NMS in PSP was sleep/fatigue (95%), followed by mood/apathy (90%), gastrointestinal (90%) and urinary dysfunction (90%). In PD, sleep/fatigue (95%) is also the most common NMS followed by gastrointestinal (85%). Caregiver burden is higher in PSP (18.20±9.23) than PD(31.72±17.05) patients. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that ZBI scores of the caregivers were not determined by PSPRS (standardized β = -0.069, P = 0.813), cognitive dysfunction (MMSE standardized β = -1.471, P = 0.051) or ability of daily life (IADL standardized β = -0.273, P = 0.292), while the NMS (NMSS standardized β = -0.639, P = 0.020) was a strong contributing factor in PSP patient. In PD group, ability of daily life (IADL standardized β = -0.440, P = 0.019) and NMS(NMSS standardized β = 0.516, P = 0.007) both influenced the ZBI scores significantly.

Conclusion: NMS are very frequent in PSP patients. The Caregivers of PSP patients have much more burden than PD. Non-motor symptoms have significant influence on the burden of caregivers in PSP.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/non-motor-symptoms-contribute-to-the-caregiver-burden-in-progressive-supranuclear-palsy/