Parkinson's disease (PD) can be symptomatically controlled with standard treatments; however, after a few years, this response typically declines and most patients develop motor complications. We carried out a prospective practice-based study to evaluate the evolution appearance and evolution of motor complications in 64 de novo PD patients over 5 years and in 38 PD patients over 10 years. We studied untreated patients from initial assessment at basal conditions and evaluated every 6 months thereafter with treatment (levodopa versus other drugs). The follow-up assessments were performed with the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). At each assessment, patients were monitored regarding the development of dyskinesias, motor fluctuations, freezing, loss of postural reflexes, and cognitive impairment. We observed a significant improvement in UPDRS scores during the first year, then a progressive decline, more evident after the third year. Motor complications increased after the third year, and at the end of the survey (tenth year); drug-induced dyskinesias and motor fluctuations were experienced (71.1 and 94.7%, respectively). After the first decade, many complications arose from the non-levodopa-responsive features of the disease (cognitive impairment was present in 52.6% and gait freezing in 71.1%). Initial medication may influence medium-term complications but not long-term problems. Most long-term disabling problems of PD were related to non-levodopa-responsive features.

Background and objective Some studies observed a benefit of PD patients after treatment with safinamide in some non-motor symptoms. Our aim was to analyze the effectiveness of safinamide on sleep and daytime sleepiness in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients. Material and methods SAFINONMOTOR is a prospective open-label single-arm study conducted in 5 centers from Spain. In this analysis, a secondary objective of the study, the score in the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) at V1 (baseline) and V4 (6 months ± 1 month) were compared. Results Fifty patients were included between May/2019 and February/2020 (age 68.5 ± 9.12 years; 58% women; 6.4 ± 5.1 years from diagnosis). At 6 months, 44 patients completed the follow-up (88%). The PSQI total score was reduced by 19.8% (from 10.43 ± 4.02 at V1 to 8.36 ± 4.41 at V4; p = 0.001). By domains, improvement was observed in subjective sleep quality (PSQI-C1; − 23.9%; p = 0.009), sleep latency (PSQI-C2; − 25%; p = 0.025), sleep duration (PSQI-C3; − 40%; p = 0.001), and habitual sleep efficiency (PSQI-C4; − 25.9%; p = 0.023). A significant reduction (− 24.7%) in the ESS total score from V1 to V4 was observed as well (from 9.20 ± 5.64 to 6.93 ± 5.11; p = 0.012). Specifically, the improvement in daytime sleepiness was observed in sitting and reading ( p = 0.024) and sitting inactive in a public space ( p = 0.027). A total of 21 adverse events in 11 patients (22%) were reported, 5 of which were severe (not related to safinamide). Conclusion Safinamide was well-tolerated and improved sleep and daytime sleepiness in PD patients at 6 months. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10072-021-05607-2.

Introduction: The aim of the present study was to examine the frequency of self-reported sleep problems and their associated factors in a large cohort of PD patients. Methods: PD patients and controls, recruited from 35 centers of Spain from the COPPADIS cohort were included in this cross-sectional study. Sleep problems were assessed by the Spanish version of the Parkinson’s disease Sleep Scale version 1 (PDSS-1). An overall score below 82 or a score below 5 on at least 1 item was defined as sleep problems. Results: The frequency of sleep problems was nearly double in PD patients compared to controls: 65.8% (448/681) vs 33.5% (65/206) (p < 0.0001). Mean total PDSS score was lower in PD patients than controls: 114.9 ± 28.8 vs 132.8 ± 16.3 (p < 0.0001). Quality of life (QoL) was worse in PD patients with sleep problems compared to those without: PDQ-39SI, 19.3 ± 14 vs 13 ± 11.6 (p < 0.0001); EUROHIS-QoL8, 3.7 ± 0.5 vs 3.9 ± 0.5 (p < 0.0001). Non-motor symptoms burden (NMSS; OR = 1.029; 95%CI 1.015–1.043; p < 0.0001) and impulse control behaviors (QUIP-RS; OR = 1.054; 95%CI 1.009–1.101; p = 0.018) were associated with sleep problems after adjustment for age, gender, disease duration, daily equivalent levodopa dose, H&Y, UPDRS-III, UPDRS-IV, PD-CRS, BDI-II, NPI, VAS-Pain, VAFS, FOGQ, and total number of non-antiparkinsonian treatments. Conclusion: Sleep problems were frequent in PD patients and were related to both a worse QoL and a greater non-motor symptoms burden in PD. These findings call for increased awareness of sleep problems in PD patients.