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Psychiatric symptoms in progressive supranuclear palsy
M A Menza1, J Cocchiola, L I Golbe
1Department of Psychiatry, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903, USA.
Psychosomatics
|November 1, 1995
Summary
Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a brain disorder, often includes dementia. Other psychiatric issues like depression and anxiety are common but usually mild in PSP patients compared to Parkinson's disease (PD).
Area of Science:
- Neurology
- Psychiatry
Background:
- Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is a rare neurodegenerative disease.
- PSP shares some symptoms with Parkinson's disease (PD), including parkinsonian signs.
- Mental changes are frequent in PSP but often poorly defined, except for dementia.
Purpose of the Study:
- To psychiatrically evaluate PSP patients.
- To compare psychiatric findings in PSP patients with those in PD patients.
- To better define non-dementia psychiatric disturbances in PSP.
Main Methods:
- Psychiatric evaluation of 19 PSP patients.
- Comparison with psychiatric data from 42 PD patients.
- Assessment of dementia using the Mini-Mental State Exam.
Main Results:
- 52% of PSP patients exhibited some degree of dementia.
- 42% of PSP patients had other psychiatric diagnoses, primarily mild depression or anxiety.
- PSP patients did not differ significantly from PD patients in depression, anxiety, or formal psychiatric diagnoses.
Conclusions:
- Dementia is a common feature of PSP.
- Psychiatric disturbances in PSP are generally mild, though severe cases can occur.
- PSP psychiatric profile, excluding dementia, is similar to PD.