Initial Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease with Elderly Onset

Abstract

Background/Objective: As the incidence of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is related to aging, we consider it important to determine how the initial symptoms change with age in order to diagnose early elderly cases of PD accurately. Methods: 84 patients (age at onset 70.7 ± 9.0 years; mean ± 1 SD) were studied to see whether the initial symptoms change according to age. Results: The prevalence of resting tremor was significantly lower in patients of advanced age (p = 0.041). In contrast, the incidence of postural and gait disorders increased significantly with aging (p = 0.032). The prevalences of rigidity and kinetic disorders, which are important clinical features of PD, were not influenced by aging. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the cause of PD is not related to the aging process itself, since the prevalences of all symptoms were not influenced by aging. Knowledge of the prevalence of the inital symptoms of PD may contribute to the accurate diagnosis in early and elderly cases.

Characteristic Motor and Nonmotor Symptoms Related to Quality of Life in Drug-Naïve Patients with Late-Onset Parkinson Disease

“…Even though the characteristics of YOPD were well demonstrated in previous studies [3,4,5,6,7], the characteristics of LOPD patients have not yet been clearly elucidated. Additionally, unlike previous studies [8,9,11,12,13], we enrolled only drug-naïve PD patients to eliminate bias from medication, and we excluded subjects with white matter changes related to axial MS and cognitive decline to minimize confounding effects. Based on our results, LOPD patients showed characteristic NMS, even from an early stage, and among MS and NMS, genitourinary symptoms were associated with LOPD.…”

“…In previous reports, data on dominant MS of LOPD were inconsistent. One study reported tremor to be more common in older PD patients, but another focusing on PD initial symptoms demonstrated a lower prevalence of tremor in LOPD patients [9,11]. Additionally, several studies found a higher prevalence of tremor in LOPD than in MOPD patients, but the difference was not statistically significant [10,12].…”

“…In Parkinson disease (PD), patients with young-onset PD (YOPD) have been reported to show characteristic features, such as increases in dystonia and levodopa-induced dyskinesia, and less dementia and gait disturbances [3,4,5,6,7]. On the contrary, only a few studies have focused on late-onset PD (LOPD), and even the cutoff age for LOPD is still controversial [8,9,10,11,12,13]. Additionally, a previous study highlighted the relationship between depression and quality of life (QoL) in YOPD patients [14], but no study has focused on the motor symptoms (MS) and nonmotor symptoms (NMS) associated with QoL in LOPD patients.…”

“…Furthermore, previous studies did not evaluate the diverse MS and NMS which are common in patients with PD [9,10,11,12,13]. Most studies have only focused on MS in LOPD patients [9,10,11], while other studies assessed a limited number of NMS, mainly cognitive decline or psychiatric symptoms [12,13].…”

“…Most studies have only focused on MS in LOPD patients [9,10,11], while other studies assessed a limited number of NMS, mainly cognitive decline or psychiatric symptoms [12,13]. Considering that NMS can impact the QoL even more than MS [15], it is important to investigate both MS and NMS related with LOPD.…”