Impact of ethnicity on non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative illness characterized by various non-motor symptoms that may contribute to disability, impaired quality of life and shortened life expectancy. The aim of present study was to determine the relative prevalence of common non-motor symptoms in various ethnic groups. A retrospective chart analysis was performed on Parkinson's disease patients where a total of 314 PD patients from six ethnic categories were examined for the occurrence of anxiety, visual hallucinations, nocturia, drooling and dementia. Our results show that anxiety in PD patients was correlated with their ethnicity classification. Interesting trends were observed with respect to nocturia and dementia symptoms and no significant differences were found between ethnic groups for visual hallucinations and drooling. Our study shows that non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease are prevalent across all ethnic groups, and except anxiety there may not be any impact of ethnicity on dementia, nocturia, drooling, and visual hallucinations.