Obsessive compulsive personality disorder and Parkinson's disease

Area of Science:

• Neurology
• Psychiatry
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder affecting motor function.
• Personality disorders may represent a non-motor symptom in PD.
• Understanding the prevalence of personality disorders in PD is crucial for comprehensive patient care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the frequency of personality disorders in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients.
• To compare the prevalence of personality disorders in PD patients versus healthy controls.

Main Methods:

• 100 PD patients (meeting UK PD Society Brain Bank criteria, without cognitive impairment) and 100 healthy controls were recruited.
• The Structured Clinical Interview for Personality Disorders-II (SCID-II) and psychiatric interviews were used for diagnosis (DSM-IV criteria).
• Clinical and pharmacological data were collected via standardized questionnaires.

Main Results:

• Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder was significantly more common in PD patients (40%) than in controls (10%; p<0.0001).
• Depressive personality disorder was also more frequent in PD patients (14%) than controls (4%; p=0.02).
• Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder was observed in 50% of de novo PD patients with short disease duration.

Conclusions:

• Parkinson's disease patients exhibit a high frequency of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.
• The occurrence of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder in PD does not appear to be linked to disease duration or dopaminergic treatment.