The symptoms of patients treated for Parkinson's disease

One hundred and eighty-one patients with treated Parkinson's disease completed a self-administered questionnaire on symptoms, and their responses were compared with those of 263 control subjects randomly selected from a general practice population. Nine symptoms were reported by the patients with more than a fivefold excess when compared with the controls. These included jerking of the limbs, shaking of the hands, excessive salivation, poor mental concentration, grimacing, being frozen or rooted to the spot, and hallucinations. Compared with the general control population, the patients did not have an excess of stomach or limb pain, indigestion, headache, or any decrease of interest in sex. This observational survey, unlike a randomised controlled trial, could not ensure that the different treatment groups were comparable in important respects. However, certain associations were apparent; for example, patients receiving both a decarboxylase inhibitor and levodopa tended to report fewer attacks of being frozen to the spot, fewer problems with salivation, and a reduced frequency of defaecation. Patients receiving anticholinergic drugs reported an excess of dry mouth, faintness, and dyskinesia, and fewer hot flushes.