[Neuropsychological deficit in Parkinson's disease. Its relation with clinical variables]

A correct diagnostic approach to the problem of Parkinson s disease dementia must be based on a thorough clinical history, with a longitudinal vision of the process, in which motor, behavioural, cognitive and systemic aspects of the disease and the degree of disability produced all have to be taken into consideration. Thus, after a meticulous neurological examination, careful neuropsychological evaluation is required to try and typify and quantify the deficits and the pattern of cognitive deterioration. Since cognitive alterations may occur during the first stages of the disease, the patient should be submitted to a neuropsychological exploration from the initial phases onwards, and then followed by longitudinal controls. AIMS. In an attempt to evaluate and determine the neuropsychological deficits associated with this disorder, we used an exhaustive neuropsychological battery which enables us to perform an in depth examination of the different neuropsychological functions. Our aim is also to link the neuropsychological performance of these patients with different clinical variables (years of schooling, evolution time, intensity, age of onset, motor alterations, depression and dopaminergic treatment).

Our sample was made up of 50 subjects divided into two groups according to their neurological diagnosis: subjects with Parkinson s disease (PD) and a control group.

A significant decrease was found in the scores obtained in some of the tests by subjects with PD compared with subjects from the control group.

In agreement with current research and our own results, we suggest that idiopathic PD is not accompanied by dementia, but by just certain specific deficits related with cortical functions, mainly in the frontal lobe. The dementia that develops in very old patients and those with a long evolution is more related with age than with the intensity of the symptoms of Parkinson.