Clinical correlates of fear of falling in progressive supranuclear palsy and multiple system atrophy

Clinical correlates of fear of falling (FoF) are scarcely studied in patients with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and multiple system atrophy (MSA). This study was undertaken to evaluate the clinical correlates of FoF in PSP and MSA.

This cross-sectional study features motor, cognitive, and psychiatric assessment and longitudinal evaluation of falls and FoF at 6-month follow-up.

Twenty-one patients with PSP-parkinsonism, 22 patients with MSA (13 parkinsonian type and nine cerebellar type), and 22 healthy controls were evaluated; 76.2% of patients with PSP and 86.4% of patients with MSA had FoF regardless of falls. Berg Balance Scale (p < 0.001), Tinetti Mobility Test (p < 0.01), Beck Anxiety Inventory (p = 0.001), and Beck Depression Inventory-II (p = 0.01) correlated with FoF in patients with PSP and MSA, whereas Timed Up and Go test (p = 0.01) and Starkstein Apathy Scale correlated only in MSA (p = 0.04).

Mobility, balance, and gait performance as well as anxiety and depression in PSP and MSA, and apathy in MSA, were determinants of FoF. These findings underline the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to FoF in neurodegenerative atypical parkinsonism.