Parkinson's disease: the non-motor issues

Non-motor symptoms (NMS) of Parkinson's disease remain the most under-appreciated and under-researched when taken as a whole. Data is emerging that it is the "totaL" burden of NMS that is the major determinant of quality of life not a single NMS such as depression for instance. Only recently validated tools such as the NMSQuest which empowers patients to declare NMS and the NMS scale, the SCOPA scales, and the modified version of the MDS-UPDRS have become available and validated for bedside clinical assessment of NMS. For the first time clinical trials have been incorporating non-motor measures as outcome measures and clinical recommendations for treatment of non-motor symptoms of PD are being published. This review aims to address some of these topical and "real life" aspects of modern day management of Parkinson's.