Non-motor symptoms in Thai patients with Parkinson's disease studied at Phramongkutklao Hospital.

BACKGROUND: Non-motor symptoms (NMS) ofParkinson's disease (PD) have been recently recognized to be as disabling as motor symptoms in PD. However these symptoms are still under recognized causing delay in treatment and inadequate management. This study aimed to identify NMS in Thai PD patients using the NMS screening questionnaire (NMSQuest). MATERIAL AND METHOD: Patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease visiting the neurology clinic in 2008 were enrolled. NMSQuest-Thai version (NMSQ-T) was applied to patients to identify NMS. RESULTS: Collected data from questionnaires completed by 165 probable idiopathic PD was analyzed. The demographic profiles showed mean age of 68.6 years with mean disease duration 5.4 years, and male 56.4%. Patients had Hoehn & Yahrstaging, stage-2: 43%, stage-3: 24.8%, stage-I: 24.2% and stage-4: 7.9%. The average dosage oflevodopa was 456.4 mg/d. Mean total NMSQ-T score was 9.5. Most prevalent of non-motor symptom was nocturia (64.2%). The domains which gained most positive answers were urinary domain (54.55%). Inter-domain correlations were significantly found in all, except the sexual domain. Multivariate analysis revealed the duration ofPD and stages were significantly correlated with the total score ofNMS. Only three percent denied having any non-motor symptoms. CONCLUSION: Almost all Thai PD had NMS. Urinary domain is the most prevalent in our series. Screening using NMSQ-Tto recognize NMS would be a helpful tool to improve the quality of life in Thai Parkinson 's disease.