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The
study revealed not all of the participants with postural symptoms would develop
cognitive difficulties. Credit: iStock
West Australian researchers have found
physical symptoms such as having difficulty moving or maintaining one's balance
could be the key to predicting cognitive changes in people who suffer from a
Parkinson's disease subtype.
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive
neurodegenerative disorder affecting approximately 2000 West Australians;
currently there is no cure.
Curtin University researchers
investigated two motor subtypes of PD to understand if they could be used to
determine future working memory
performance in Idiopathic Parkinson's disease.
The study involved 114 West Australian
participants with confirmed PD (84 males and 30 females) aged between 39 and 85
years.
Participants were assessed at a two-year
follow-up to explore the relationship between the two subtypes and working
memory.
PhD candidate Andrew Johnson says people
who suffer from Parkinson's disease often present with different combinations
of motor symptoms.
Individual's with prominent tremors and
rigidity are Tremor Dominant (TD), or if they mainly have difficulty moving
it's classed as Postural Instability & Gait Difficulty (PIGD).
"Some individuals will present with
very severe tremor symptoms but not very severe postural symptoms."
"Whereas others will have severe
postural symptoms [difficulties maintaining balance] but little tremor
symptoms," Mr Johnson says.
The researchers wanted to see if there
was a link between future working memory of PD patients and motor symptom
changes now.
"People with postural dominant
Parkinson's tend to be at a higher risk of cognitive difficulties; developing
dementia, and overall poorer performance on tasks of thinking and memory,"
Mr Johnson says.
The scientist explored the relationships
with cognition in the two motor subtypes, finding a strong correlation with physical symptoms
especially for the participants who have PIGD.
"We found that within each subtype
the relationship between motor symptoms and cognition was different," he
says.
The study revealed not all of
the
participants with postural symptoms would develop cognitive difficulties.
"In the tremor dominant (TD) group
their postural symptoms weren't at all related to cognition but in the postural
dominant (PIGD) group the postural symptoms were related to cognition," Mr
Johnson says.
Mr Johnson says at the moment there
isn't any clear guidelines people can follow to predict changes to future
working memory based on warning signs.
"Everyone with Parkinson's presents
so differently, you can't really tell people how it's going to be in five or
ten years," he says.
Mr Johns says research is ongoing and
further subtyping studies are needed to help people with Parkinson's disease.
More information: Andrew R. Johnson et al. Motor Subtype
as a Predictor of Future Working Memory Performance in Idiopathic Parkinson's
Disease, PLOS ONE (2016). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0152534
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-07-immobility-key-parkinson-decline.html?
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Monday, July 18, 2016
Immobility may be key to predicting Parkinson's decline
July 18, 2016
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