26th January 2017 - New research

MILD COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT IN PARKINSON'S DISEASE

Researchers have examined the incidence, progression, and reversion of mild cognitive impairment in people with Parkinson's Disease (PD-MCI). Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is an intermediate stage between the cognitive decline of normal ageing and the more-serious decline of dementia. It can involve problems with memory (such as forgetting recent events or repeating the same question), language, thinking, and judgement. For more information go to dementia : Dementia

People with Parkinson's Disease were assessed at diagnosis, after 1 year, after 3 years, and after 5 years. At the outset, 20% of them had PD-MCI, after 1 year 30%, after 3 years 43%, and after 5 years almost half of them (49%). Few of those people (7%) who did not have mild cognitive impairment at the outset developed dementia within the next 5 years. Of those that did have mild cognitive impairment at the outset, 39% of them developed dementia within 5 years. Of those that had mild cognitive impairment after 1 year, 59% of them developed dementia within 5 years.

Over 27% of those people with PD-MCI at the outset actually rid their cognitive impairment after 5 years, as did 24% of people who had developed cognitive impairment during the first 5 years. However, they were still far more prone to eventually developing dementia. Although dementia often occurs as Parkinson's Disease worsens, Parkinson's Disease and dementia are biochemically distinct. Dementia is not actually a dopaminergic symptom.

Reference : Neurology [2017] Jan 20 [Epub ahead of print] (K.F.Pedersen, J.P.Larsen, O.B. Tysnes, G.Alves) Complete abstract  For more news go to Parkinson's Disease News