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Dementia and treatment with L ‐dopa in Parkinson's disease
Author(s) -
Hietanen M.,
Teräväinen H.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
movement disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.352
H-Index - 198
eISSN - 1531-8257
pISSN - 0885-3185
DOI - 10.1002/mds.870030311
Subject(s) - dementia , wechsler adult intelligence scale , neuropsychology , cognition , medicine , disease , parkinson's disease , wechsler memory scale , central nervous system disease , pediatrics , psychology , psychiatry
We compared the neuropsychological performance of patients with Parkinson's disease who were young at onset of the disease (mean age, 41.4 years) and had received prolonged L ‐dopa treatment (mean, 52.1 months) with nontreated patients of the same age. A similar comparison was made for patients who were older at onset of the disease (mean, 62.1 years). There were no significant differences in cognitive and memory functions between the L ‐Dopa‐treated and untreated young patients, whereas the L ‐Dopa‐treated patients in the older age group performed more poorly than untreated patients in some memory tests (Wechsler Memory Scale I: logical and visula) and cognitive functions (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale: similarities, block design, and cognitive flexibility). Treatment duration, disease duration, and mean L ‐Dopa dose were comparable for the two age groups. After linear effects of age and disease duration had been eliminated, the duration of L ‐Dopa treatment did not correlate with the cognitive vaiables studied. These observations suggest that treatment with L ‐Dopa may not be the cause of cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease.