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Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder resulting from degeneration of the substantia nigra and the dopaminergic nigrostriatal pathway. Most treatments are geared toward the management and relief of motor symptoms in Parkinson's patients; however, as the disease progresses, various complications can be observed. Non-motor symptoms (NMS) may arise simply from the disease itself and are highly destructive to quality of life. These symptoms include mood disorders, cognitive dysfunction, pain, sensory dysfunction, and dysautonomia. Though it is undisputed that many NMS may appear years or even decades prior to the clinical diagnosis of PD, the focus of this review will be the overt motor phase of the condition. As such, the focus of this paper is to review the major NMS found in PD patients status post-diagnosis, their etiology, as well as treatment options available for the individual NMS.

The aim of this review is to assess new, emerging, and experimental treatment options for tardive dyskinesia (TD). The methods to obtain relevant studies for review included a MEDLINE search and a review of studies in English, along with checking reference lists of articles. The leading explanatory models of TD development include dopamine receptor supersensitivity, GABA depletion, cholinergic deficiency, neurotoxicity, oxidative stress, changes in synaptic plasticity, and defective neuroadaptive signaling. As such, a wide range of treatment options are available. To provide a complete summary of choices we review atypical antipsychotics along with resveratrol, botulinum toxin, Ginkgo biloba, tetrabenazine, clonazepam, melatonin, essential fatty acids, zonisamide, levetiracetam, branched-chain amino acids, drug combinations, and invasive surgical treatments. There is currently no US Food and Drug Administration-approved treatment for TD; however, prudent use of atypical antipsychotics with routine monitoring remain the cornerstone of therapy, with experimental treatment options available for further management.

Pain in Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a debilitating symptom with a prevalence of 68%, yet is untreated 50% of the time. What is unclear, however, is which treatment is optimal for minimizing pain severity in PD. Thus, the objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to investigate the efficacy of a variety of novel, complimentary, and conventional treatments for pain in PD and elucidate which therapy is the most effective. A systematic search was performed using MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Embase, CINAHL, and CENTRAL databases. To identify additional articles, manual searches of reference lists of included trials were also searched. Major neurology conference proceedings occurring between January 2014 and February 2018 were also searched to identify unpublished studies that may be potentially eligible. Twenty-five randomized controlled trials that encompassed medical, surgical, and complementary therapies met our inclusion criteria and exhibited moderate quality evidence. Two reviewers conducted assessments for study eligibility, risk of bias, data extraction, and quality of evidence rating. A conservative random-effects model was used to pool effect estimates of pain severity. The greatest reductions in pain were found with safinamide (Standardized mean difference = –4.83, 95% CI [–5.07 to –4.59], p < 0.0001), followed by cannabinoids and opioids, multidisciplinary team care, catechol-O-methyltransferase inhibitors, and electrical and Chinese therapies. Moderate effects in reducing pain were in pardoprunox and surgery, while the weakest effects were in dopaminergic agonists and miscellaneous therapies. Safinamide is an important adjunct to standard parkinsonian medication for alleviating pain in PD.

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Background/Aims: Drooling or sialorrhea is a common non-motor symptom of Parkinson’s disease (PD), and is reported by 35–75% of patients. Drooling is primarily due to impaired swallowing rather than hypersecretion of saliva. In this study, we examined the prevalence of drooling in PD and its relation to various factors such as age, stage of disease, gender and ethnicity. Methods: A retrospective cohort chart analysis of 307 patients with idiopathic PD was conducted. These patients were seen in the Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Clinic between 2005 and 2010. Results: 123 (40%) patients exhibited drooling. No correlation between age and development of drooling was observed. However, gender was found to be a significant factor in developing sialorrhea. Males are twice as more likely to develop sialorrhea than females. In addition, drooling becomes more prevalent with disease progression; Hoehn and Yahr stage 4 patients being the most at risk. Ethnicity and immigration status have no relationship in developing drooling. Conclusions: Sialorrhea is seen in a significant number of PD patients. This study, to the best of our knowledge, is the most extensive clinical assessment of drooling in PD to date.

Poor sleep quality in PD patients is related to greater pain severity, pain interference, and more radiating and paresthestic pain that is independent of RLS. There is a higher prevalence of depression and anxiety in PD patients compared to controls, especially in PD patients with poor sleep quality. Our findings suggest a relationship between poor sleep quality in PD with pain, anxiety and depression. Prospective studies are warranted to investigate the causal relationship.