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Neurocognitive deficits in Parkinson's disease
Abstracts from the 18th Annual Meeting
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education, or vocabulary ability. A series of ANOVAs were calculated to determine significant differences in performance between groups. Significant differences were observed on all neuropsychological measures with the exception of two recognition memory tasks. Tukey's HSD post hoc analyses revealed that the ND group significantly differed from SVaD group on 16 of 18 neuropsychological measures that were administered, and from the Dep group on 5 of 18 measures. More specifically, the ND group performed significantly better than the Dep group on measures of global cognitive functioning (MMSE), semantic/category fluency, word list learning, and information processing speed (Symbol Digit Modalities Test). Although the Dep group outperformed the SVaD group on all neuropsychological measures, none of these differences was statistically significant. In agreement with previously published research (e.g., Veiel, 1997), compared to the ND group, the neuropsychological deficits observed in the Dep group are consistent with a global-diffuse impairment of brain functions with particular involvement of the frontal lobes. In addition, the present results coincide with research (e.g., Nussbaum et al., 1995) suggesting that depression in some older patients may present as the first sign of a later developing dementia and underscores the need to have these patients followed even when there is little initial convincing evidence of dementia.
Zakzanis, K. K., & Freedman, M. Neurocognitive Deficits in Parkinson's Disease. Idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD) is a degenerative disorder of unknown etiology affecting mainly the pigmented neurons from the pars compacta of the substantia nigra and the integrity of functional neuronal loops connecting basal ganglia and frontal cortex. To review the cognitive subcortical system deficits in PD, meta-analytic principles were employed to provide a basis of comparison of cognitive deficits in nondemented and demented patients with PD. Ninety-nine studies met inclusion criteria and the neu-. rocognitive test results from a total of 2,730 patients with PD (596 demented, 2,134 nondemented) and 2464 healthy controls were synthesized using effect size analyses. The re-view revealed significant relationship(s) between duration of disease, physical disability, and cognitive impairment in nondemented patients and qualitative and quantitative differences in the pattern of neurocognitive test impairments between nondemented and demented patients with PD. For example, relative to healthy controls, nondemented patients were most impaired on tests of delayed recall, whereas demented patients were most impaired on tasks of manual dexterity. This disparate pattern of impairment in nondemented and demented patients may indeed reflect disease progression given the significant relationship(s) between duration of disease, physical disability, and cognitive impairment in nondemented patients. That is, as the duration of the disease endures and progressive dopamine deficiency of the substantia nigra further disrupts the integrity of functional neuronal loops connecting basal ganglia and frontal cortex, it appears that performance on tasks of manual dexterity and cognitive flexibility and abstraction arc only then more greatly impaired relative to nondemented patients. Zakzanis, K. K., Leach, L., & Kaplan, E. Dissociation in CVL T and R A VL T Performance Differentiates Patients with Depression from Alzheimer' s Disease. An effect size analysis of neurocognitive deficit in patients with depression using metaanalytic principles was conducted. The results revealed that depression had the largest effect on measures of encoding and retrieval from episodic memory. Intermediate effect sizes were recorded on tests of psychomotor speed as well as tests that require sustained
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education, or vocabulary ability. A series of ANOVAs were calculated to determine significant differences in performance between groups. Significant differences were observed on all neuropsychological measures with the exception of two recognition memory tasks. Tukey's HSD post hoc analyses revealed that the ND group significantly differed from SVaD group on 16 of 18 neuropsychological measures that were administered, and from the Dep group on 5 of 18 measures. More specifically, the ND group performed significantly better than the Dep group on measures of global cognitive functioning (MMSE), semantic/category fluency, word list learning, and information processing speed (Symbol Digit Modalities Test). Although the Dep group outperformed the SVaD group on all neuropsychological measures, none of these differences was statistically significant. In agreement with previously published research (e.g., Veiel, 1997), compared to the ND group, the neuropsychological deficits observed in the Dep group are consistent with a global-diffuse impairment of brain functions with particular involvement of the frontal lobes. In addition, the present results coincide with research (e.g., Nussbaum et al., 1995) suggesting that depression in some older patients may present as the first sign of a later developing dementia and underscores the need to have these patients followed even when there is little initial convincing evidence of dementia.
Zakzanis, K. K., & Freedman, M. Neurocognitive Deficits in Parkinson's Disease. Idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD) is a degenerative disorder of unknown etiology affecting mainly the pigmented neurons from the pars compacta of the substantia nigra and the integrity of functional neuronal loops connecting basal ganglia and frontal cortex. To review the cognitive subcortical system deficits in PD, meta-analytic principles were employed to provide a basis of comparison of cognitive deficits in nondemented and demented patients with PD. Ninety-nine studies met inclusion criteria and the neu-. rocognitive test results from a total of 2,730 patients with PD (596 demented, 2,134 nondemented) and 2464 healthy controls were synthesized using effect size analyses. The re-view revealed significant relationship(s) between duration of disease, physical disability, and cognitive impairment in nondemented patients and qualitative and quantitative differences in the pattern of neurocognitive test impairments between nondemented and demented patients with PD. For example, relative to healthy controls, nondemented patients were most impaired on tests of delayed recall, whereas demented patients were most impaired on tasks of manual dexterity. This disparate pattern of impairment in nondemented and demented patients may indeed reflect disease progression given the significant relationship(s) between duration of disease, physical disability, and cognitive impairment in nondemented patients. That is, as the duration of the disease endures and progressive dopamine deficiency of the substantia nigra further disrupts the integrity of functional neuronal loops connecting basal ganglia and frontal cortex, it appears that performance on tasks of manual dexterity and cognitive flexibility and abstraction arc only then more greatly impaired relative to nondemented patients. Zakzanis, K. K., Leach, L., & Kaplan, E. Dissociation in CVL T and R A VL T Performance Differentiates Patients with Depression from Alzheimer' s Disease. An effect size analysis of neurocognitive deficit in patients with depression using metaanalytic principles was conducted. The results revealed that depression had the largest effect on measures of encoding and retrieval from episodic memory. Intermediate effect sizes were recorded on tests of psychomotor speed as well as tests that require sustained