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Depressive symptom profile in Parkinson's disease: a comparison with depression in elderly patients without Parkinson's disease
Author(s) -
Ehrt Uwe,
Brønnick Kolbjørn,
Leentjens Albert F. G.,
Larsen Jan Petter,
Aarsland Dag
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
international journal of geriatric psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.28
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1166
pISSN - 0885-6230
DOI - 10.1002/gps.1456
Subject(s) - parkinson's disease , anhedonia , depression (economics) , psychology , sadness , rating scale , disease , degenerative disease , medicine , neurochemical , depressive symptoms , psychiatry , cognition , developmental psychology , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , anger , economics , macroeconomics
Objective Depression is a common neuropsychiatric syndrome in Parkinson's disease (PD), and may be etiologically related to the neurochemical changes accompanying this disease. It is still unclear whether the disturbances of neurotransmitter activities lead to a specific profile of depressive symptoms, that is characteristic for PD and differs from that in depressed patients without PD. Method We compared the individual depressive symptoms of 145 non‐demented depressed patients with PD and 100 depressed patients without PD by comparing item scores on the Montgomery‐Åsberg Depression Rating Scale by way of MANCOVA. Results The severity of depression and the level of cognitive functioning in depressed PD patients were comparable with that of depressed control subjects. However, patients with PD showed significant less reported sadness, less anhedonia, less feelings of guilt and, slightly less loss of energy, but more concentration problems than depressed control subjects. Conclusion The profile of depressive symptoms in PD differs from that in depressed subjects without PD. This finding is important for the conceptualisation and clinical diagnosis of depression in PD. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.