Influence of non-motor manifestations of Parkinson’s disease on quality of life

Aim. To estimate the degree of influence of non-motor manifestations on the quality of life among patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Materials and methods. In the study, the “case-control” design was used, processing of the data was conducted with nonparametric methods. Complex examination of 58 patients with Parkinson’s disease was performed. The control group included 15 healthy persons.

Results. Manifestation of cognitive, anxiety-depressive, vegetative symptoms in the main group was significantly higher than in the control. There was revealed a negative correlation dependence between the general manifestation of vegetative disorders and the social functioning indices (R = – 0.5; p = 0.001), pain intensity (R = – 0.5; p = 0.001) and psychical health (R = – 0.5; p = 0.005) that proves aggravation of the data on health components as the severity of symptoms was growing. The analyzed vegetative disorders of separate subsystems demonstrated the analogous tendencies. Severity of depressive symptoms influences the pain indices (R = – 0.4; p = 0.01) and the social functions (R = – 0.3; p = 0.03). According to unified scale, non-motor symptoms negatively influence the general health status (R = – 0.3; p = 0.001), social functioning (R= – 0.23; p = 0.004), pain assessment (R = – 0.5; p = 0.001).

Conclusions. Non-motor symptoms aggravate the quality of life, influencing both physical and psychological component of health. The absence of correlation between the duration of therapy and the severity of non-motor symptoms confirms the independence of this block of symptoms.