Objective: We seek to report data on ICD symptoms collected on 120 patients with Parkinsonism attending specialist movement disorder outpatient clinics using a newly devised, one-page questionnaire. We seek to validate this questionnaire against accepted screening tools for ICD. Our analysis will include identification of risk factors e.g. drug class and preparation, disease and treatment duration along with clinical features. We also aim to report the prevalence of ICD in treatment naïve patients attending.

Background: Patients with Parkinsonism often experience distressing neuropsychiatric symptoms. Amongst them, impulse control disorders (ICDs) are often underreported. Behaviours such as pathological gambling, compulsive eating, punding, dopamine medication dysregulation, compulsive shopping and hypersexuality, can have a devastating impact on patient and care giver quality of life. Patients can be reluctant to report symptoms, lack insight or be unaware of the relevance to their underlying condition. A user-friendly, pragmatic, rapid screening tool is therefore essential to clinical practice to identify symptoms and raise awareness in patients and carers. We deployed a one-page questionnaire in the busy outpatient clinic setting.

Methods: A simple one-page questionnaire was devised by neurologists with expertise in movement disorders and a movement disorder nurse specialist. The questionnaire contains 10 simple yes/no queries and a final three options for patient rated impact on quality of life. Our questionnaire will be validated against the Questionnaire for Impulsive-Compulsive Disorders in Parkinson’s Disease (QUIP) and detailed, physician led clinical interview.

Results: Preliminary results from 60 patients (48 male) indicate a high prevalence of ICD, with 50% reporting at least one ICD behaviour. 13% and 10% of patients surveyed indicated 2 and 3 ICD behaviours, respectively. Of the ICDs reported, binge eating (60%) followed by compulsive shopping (36.6%), reckless generosity (26.6%), hypersexuality (23.3%) and gambling (16.6%) were most frequent. Patients exhibiting ICD behaviours were more likely to have dyskinesia, with punding most prominent in this subgroup. Data collection is ongoing and results will be reported on a further sixty patients, along with discriminant validity and sensitivity of our questionnaire.

Conclusions: We propose a simplified ICD screening tool for use in busy movement disorder clinics.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/validation-of-a-one-page-impulse-control-disorder-questionnaire-in-a-parkinsons-disease-clinic/