Various mental behavioral disorders in Parkinson's disease, primary degenerative senile dementia, and multiple infarction dementia

Summary

Following 2–4 years of hospitalization, the mental and physical ability of 21 patients with typical idiopathic PD, 10 patients with atypical Parkinson's syndrome and signs of cerebral arteriosclerosis, 29 patients with MID, and 14 patients with senile dementia of the Alzheimer type were evaluated according to various rating scales. All idiopathic parkinsonian patients had suffered from the disease for over 8 years. All patients were over 70 years of age and continuously subjected to the same environment. EEG and CT was performed. A rating scale consisting of 18 items for evaluation of the mental and physical capacity and ability to cope with daily psychosocial demands was used for each patient. Statistically highly significant differences resulted between the relative good mental ability of patients with idiopathic Parkinson's syndrome, with the exception of some brief pharmacotoxic psychoses, and the lower rating scores of patients with senile dementia of Alzheimer type and multiple infarction dementia. A smaller subgroup of patients with Parkinson's syndrome and additional focal signs in the neurological status and EEG showed moderate mental functional loss and a more frequent incidence of pharmacotoxic psychoses than the patients with idiopathic PD. Just as few congruencies of mental ability were found between patients with idiopathic, typical PD and patients with senile dementia of the Alzheimer type as between idiopathic PD and MID. Permanent dementia is not characteristic of patients with typical idiopathic PD even in advanced age. It is, however, for patients with MID and SDAT.