Objective: To investigate suicidality in Parkinson’s disease (PD) by a case control study

Background: Depression, a risk factor for suicidality, is rather common in PD patients. Nevertheless, a small number of clinical studies report conflicting data on suicidality in Parkinson’s disease (PD). In addition, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate suicidal ideation in a case control manner.

Methods: One hundred PD patients, and 100 age-, sex-, years of education-, and marital status- matched healthy controls (HCs) were included. Cognitive impairment was assessed by Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and participants with a score <24 were excluded.  Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Suicide Probability Scale (SPS) were filled by each participant. For PD group, data on disease duration, Hoehn-Yahr stages (HYS), levodopa equivalent daily doses (LEDD), and whether they had subthalamic deep brain stimulation (DBS) or not were obtained. As data were not normally distributed, nonparametric analyses were used.

Results: All data are reported as mean (standard deviation) or number (percentage). Suicide Probability Scale score was significantly lower in PD group (56,6 (+-12,9) vs 63,9 (+-13,5) U=3367.5, p<.01), lower score meaning lower suicidality. Demographics and scale scores of each study group are summarized in Table 1. Disease features of PD group are summarized in Table 2. 

[table1]

[table2]

Healthy controls had a significantly higher MMSE score. Although SPS scores were significantly lower in PD patients both groups had similar BDI scores. Suicide Probability Scale had a moderate positive relationship with BDI and a very weak negative relationship with MMSE (rs=.515 p<.01; rs=-.142, p=.045).  For PD group, SPS had weak positive relationships with disease duration and LEDD (rs=.219 p=.037; rs=-.213, p=.033). Although MMSE and BDI scores were similar in between different HYS (X2 (5) = 8.787, p=.118; X2 (5) = 3.569, p=.613), SPS scores were significantly different (X2 (5) =11 .983, p=.035) (Figure 1). Nevertheless; MMSE, BDI and SPS were not affected by DBS (U=708, p=.784; U=735, p=.978; U=544.5, p=.082).

[figure1]

Conclusions: Suicidality is lower in PD compared to healthy controls. Depression is a risk factor and disease severity increases suicidality in PD.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/suicidality-in-parkinsons-disease-a-case-control-study/