Risk factors for neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with Parkinson's disease during COVID-19 pandemic in Japan

PLoS One. 2021 Jan 22;16(1):e0245864. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0245864. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

The worsening of neuropsychiatric symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and insomnia in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) has been a concern during the COVID-19 pandemic, because most people worked in self-isolation for fear of infection. We aimed to clarify the impact of social restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic on neuropsychiatric symptoms in PD patients and to identify risk factors associated with these symptoms. A cross-sectional, hospital-based survey was conducted from April 22, 2020 to May 15, 2020. PD patients and their family members were asked to complete paper-based questionnaires about neuropsychiatric symptoms by mail. PD patients were evaluated for motor symptoms using MDS-UPDRS part 2 by telephone interview. A total of 71 responders (39 PD patients and 32 controls) completed the study. Although there was no difference in the age distribution, the rate of females was significantly lower in PD patients (35%) than controls (84%) (P < 0.001). Participants with clinical depression (PHQ-9 score ≥ 10) were more common in PD patients (39%) than controls (6%) (P = 0.002). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that an MDS-UPDRS part 2 score was correlated with the presence of clinical depression (PHQ-9 score ≥ 10) and clinical anxiety (GAD-7 score ≥ 7) (clinical depression: OR, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.04-1.66; P = 0.025; clinical anxiety: OR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.07-1.72; P = 0.013). In the presence of social restrictions, more attention needs to be paid to the neuropsychiatric complications of PD patients, especially those with more severe motor symptoms.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Anxiety Disorders / etiology*
  • COVID-19 / epidemiology*
  • Depressive Disorder / etiology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Japan / epidemiology
  • Male
  • Parkinson Disease / complications*
  • Risk Factors
  • Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders / etiology*

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Grants-in-Aid (18K07506 to T.K.; 20K16605 to T.O.) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan.