Early impairment of cognitive functions in Parkinson's disease

BACKGROUND: Impairment in non-motor functions such as disturbances of some executive functions are also common events in Parkinson's disease patients. OBJECTIVE: To verify the performance of Parkinson's disease patients in activities requiring visuoconstructive and visuospatial skills. METHOD: Thirty elderly patients with mild or moderate stages of Parkinson's disease were studied. The assessment of the clinical condition was based on the unified Parkinson's disease rating scale (56.28; SD=33.48), Hoehn and Yahr (2.2; SD=0.83), Schwab and England (78.93%), clock drawing test (7.36; SD=2.51), and mini-mental state examination (26.48; SD=10.11). Pearson's correlation and stepwise multiple regression were used for statistical analyses. RESULTS: The patients presented deterioration in visuospatial and visuoconstructive skills. CONCLUSION: The clock drawing test proved to be a useful predictive tool for identifying early cognitive impairment in thesbe individuals.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Stella,Florindo, Gobbi,Lilian T. B., Gobbi,Sebastião, Oliani,Merlyn M., Tanaka,Kátia, Pieruccini-Faria,Frederico
Format:	Digital revista
Language:	English
Published:	Academia Brasileira de Neurologia - ABNEURO 2007
Online Access:	http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-282X2007000300008
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!