scholarly journals What Do We Know about Theory of Mind Impairment in Parkinson’s Disease?

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 130
Author(s):  
Clara Trompeta ◽  
Beatriz Fernández Rodríguez ◽  
Carmen Gasca-Salas

Theory of mind (ToM) is a social cognitive skill that involves the ability to attribute mental states to self and others (what they think (cognitive ToM) and feel (affective ToM)). We aim to provide an overview of previous knowledge of ToM in Parkinson’s disease (PD). In the last few years more attention has been paid to the study of this construct as a non-motor manifestation of PD. In advanced stages, both components of ToM (cognitive and affective) are commonly impaired, although in early PD results remain controversial. Executive dysfunction correlates with ToM deficits and other cognitive domains such as language and visuospatial function have also been related to ToM. Recent studies have demonstrated that PD patients with mild cognitive impairment show ToM deficits more frequently in comparison with cognitively normal PD patients. In addition to the heterogeneity of ToM tests administered in different studies, depression and dopaminergic medication may also be acting as confounding factors, but there are still insufficient data to support this. Neuroimaging studies conducted to understand the underlying networks of cognitive and affective ToM deficits in PD are lacking. The study of ToM deficit in PD continues to be important, as this may worsen quality of life and favor social stigma. Future studies should be considered, including assessment of the patients’ cognitive state, associated mood disorders, and the role of dopaminergic deficit.

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare M. Eddy ◽  
Sarah R. Beck ◽  
Ian J. Mitchell ◽  
Peter Praamstra ◽  
Hardev S. Pall

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hidetomo Murakami ◽  
Kenjiro Ono ◽  
Tomotaka Shiraishi ◽  
Tadashi Umehara ◽  
Shusaku Omoto ◽  
...  

The level of α-synuclein, a component of Lewy bodies, in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in Parkinson's disease (PD) has attracted recent attention. Most meta-analyses conclude that CSF levels of α-synuclein are decreased in PD. Patients with PD present with cognitive impairment, including frontal/executive dysfunction in the early phase and later emergence of visuospatial and mnemonic deficits. To examine whether CSF α-synuclein levels reflect the activities of various cognitive domains, we reviewed reports examining the association of these levels with cognitive performance in each domain in PD. Among 13 cross-sectional studies, five showed that a lower CSF α-synuclein level was associated with worse cognitive function. In four of these five reports, frontal/executive function showed this association, suggesting a link of the pathophysiology with Lewy bodies. In three other reports, a higher CSF α-synuclein level was associated with temporal-parieto-occipital cognitive deterioration such as memory. In the other five reports, the CSF α-synuclein level did not correlate with cognitive performance for any domain. In four longitudinal studies, a higher baseline CSF α-synuclein level was associated with a worse cognitive outcome, including cognitive processing speed, visuospatial function and memory in two, but not with any cognitive outcome in the other two. The different associations may reflect the heterogeneous pathophysiology in PD, including different pathogenic proteins, neurotransmitters. Thus, more studies of the association between cognitive domains and CSF levels of pathogenic proteins are warranted.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (37) ◽  
pp. 4738-4746
Author(s):  
Mohan K. Ghanta ◽  
P. Elango ◽  
Bhaskar L. V. K. S.

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder of dopaminergic striatal neurons in basal ganglia. Treatment of Parkinson’s disease (PD) through dopamine replacement strategies may provide improvement in early stages and this treatment response is related to dopaminergic neuronal mass which decreases in advanced stages. This treatment failure was revealed by many studies and levodopa treatment became ineffective or toxic in chronic stages of PD. Early diagnosis and neuroprotective agents may be a suitable approach for the treatment of PD. The essentials required for early diagnosis are biomarkers. Characterising the striatal neurons, understanding the status of dopaminergic pathways in different PD stages may reveal the effects of the drugs used in the treatment. This review updates on characterisation of striatal neurons, electrophysiology of dopaminergic pathways in PD, biomarkers of PD, approaches for success of neuroprotective agents in clinical trials. The literature was collected from the articles in database of PubMed, MedLine and other available literature resources.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1027
Author(s):  
Diego Santos García ◽  
Marta Blázquez-Estrada ◽  
Matilde Calopa ◽  
Francisco Escamilla-Sevilla ◽  
Eric Freire ◽  
...  

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic progressive and irreversible disease and the second most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide. In Spain, it affects around 120.000–150.000 individuals, and its prevalence is estimated to increase in the future. PD has a great impact on patients’ and caregivers’ lives and also entails a substantial socioeconomic burden. The aim of the present study was to examine the current situation and the 10-year PD forecast for Spain in order to optimize and design future management strategies. This study was performed using the modified Delphi method to try to obtain a consensus among a panel of movement disorders experts. According to the panel, future PD management will improve diagnostic capacity and follow-up, it will include multidisciplinary teams, and innovative treatments will be developed. The expansion of new technologies and studies on biomarkers will have an impact on future PD management, leading to more accurate diagnoses, prognoses, and individualized therapies. However, the socio-economic impact of the disease will continue to be significant by 2030, especially for patients in advanced stages. This study highlighted the unmet needs in diagnosis and treatment and how crucial it is to establish recommendations for future diagnostic and therapeutic management of PD.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Tobias Loetscher

BACKGROUND: The majority of people living with Parkinson’s disease will develop impairments in cognition. These impairments are associated with a reduced quality of life. OBJECTIVE: The Cochrane Review aimed to investigate whether cognitive training improves cognition in people with Parkinson’s disease and mild cognitive impairments or dementia. METHODS: A Cochrane Review by Orgeta et al. was summarized with comments. RESULTS: The review included seven studies with a total of 225 participants. There was no evidence for improvements in global cognition when cognitive training was compared to control conditions. Observed improvements in attention and verbal memory measures after cognitive training could not be confirmed in a subsequent sensitivity analysis. There was no evidence for benefits in other cognitive domains or quality of life measures. The certainty of the evidence was low for all comparisons. CONCLUSIONS: The effectiveness of cognitive training for people with Parkinson’s disease and cognitive impairments remains inconclusive. There is a pressing need for adequately powered trials with higher methodological quality.


2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rwei-Ling Yu ◽  
Ruey-Meei Wu ◽  
Ming-Jang Chiu ◽  
Chun-Hwei Tai ◽  
Chin-Hsien Lin ◽  
...  

Basal Ganglia ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 4
Author(s):  
Nele Schmidt ◽  
Laura Paschen ◽  
Günther Deuschl ◽  
Karsten Witt

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Maffoni ◽  
Anna Giardini ◽  
Antonia Pierobon ◽  
Davide Ferrazzoli ◽  
Giuseppe Frazzitta

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by motor and nonmotor symptoms. Both of them imply a negative impact on Health-Related Quality of Life. A significant one is the stigma experienced by the parkinsonian patients and their caregivers. Moreover, stigma may affect everyday life and patient’s subjective and relational perception and it may lead to frustration and isolation. Aim of the present work is to qualitatively describe the stigma of PD patients stemming from literature review, in order to catch the subjective experience and the meaning of the stigma construct. Literature review was performed on PubMed database and Google Scholar (keywords: Parkinson Disease, qualitative, stigma, social problem, isolation, discrimination) and was restricted to qualitative data: 14 articles were identified to be suitable to the aim of the present overview. Results are divided into four core constructs: stigma arising from symptoms, stigma linked to relational and communication problems, social stigma arising from sharing perceptions, and caregiver’s stigma. The principal relations to these constructs are deeply analyzed and described subjectively through patients’ and caregiver’s point of view. The qualitative research may allow a better understanding of a subjective symptom such as stigma in parkinsonian patients from an intercultural and a social point of view.


2015 ◽  
Vol 279 ◽  
pp. 226-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunhua Xi ◽  
Youling Zhu ◽  
Yanfang Mu ◽  
Bing Chen ◽  
Bin Dong ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Dinesh Saini ◽  
Adreesh Mukherjee ◽  
Arijit Roy ◽  
Atanu Biswas

<b><i>Background:</i></b> Executive dysfunction is the common thread between pure cortical dementia like the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and subcortical dementia like Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD). Although there are clinical and cognitive features to differentiate cortical and subcortical dementia, the behavioral symptoms differentiating these 2 conditions are still not well known. <b><i>Objective:</i></b> To evaluate the behavioral profile of bvFTD and PDD and compare them to find out which behavioral symptoms can differentiate between the two. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Twenty consecutive patients with bvFTD (&#x3e;1 year after diagnosis) and 20 PDD patients were recruited according to standard diagnostic criteria. Behavioral symptoms were collected from the reliable caregiver by means of a set of questionnaires and then compared between the 2 groups. <b><i>Results:</i></b> bvFTD patients had more severe disease and more behavioral symptoms than PDD. bvFTD patients were different from PDD patients due to their significantly greater: loss of basic emotion (<i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.001, odds ratio [OR] 44.33), loss of awareness of pain (<i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.001, OR 44.33), disinhibition (<i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.001, OR 35.29), utilization phenomenon (<i>p</i> = 0.008, OR 22.78), loss of taste discrimination (<i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.001, OR 17), neglect of hygiene (<i>p</i> = 0.001, OR 13.22), loss of embarrassment (<i>p</i> = 0.003, OR 10.52), wandering (<i>p</i> = 0.004, OR 9.33), pacing (<i>p</i> = 0.014, OR 9), selfishness (<i>p</i> = 0.014, OR 9), increased smoking (<i>p</i> = 0.014, OR 9), increased alcohol consumption (<i>p</i> = 0.031, OR 7.36), social avoidance (<i>p</i> = 0.012, OR 6.93), mutism (<i>p</i> = 0.041, OR 5.67), and failure to recognize objects (<i>p</i> = 0.027, OR 4.33). The bvFTD patients were also significantly less suspicious (<i>p</i> = 0.001, OR 0.0295), less inclined to have a false belief that people were in their home (<i>p</i> = 0.014, OR 0.11) and had fewer visual illusions/hallucinations (<i>p</i> = 0.004, OR 0.107) than PDD patients. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> Behavioral symptoms are helpful to distinguish bvFTD from PDD, and thus also cortical dementia with frontal-lobe dysfunction from subcortical dementia.


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