Visuoperception and visuospatial and visuorotational performance in Parkinson's disease.

Forty patients with Parkinson's disease were compared with 33 normal controls with respect to their performance in the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale subtests "information", "similarities", "block design", and "picture completion", in a test for visual neglect (Hamsher's line cancellation test) and in tests for visuospatial and visuorotational abilities (cube task from Amthauer's intelligence structure test and Rybakoff figure test, as revised by Meili). The findings show that the patients scored significantly worse than the controls (Mann-Whitney U test, P = 0.004) in the Rybakoff figure test, testing visual concept finding, imagination and visual rotation. In the other tests no significant differences were found between the patients and the controls. The deficit of the patients in the figure test of Rybakoff correlated significantly with tremor (P = 0.013), akinesia (P = 0.009), disability (P = 0.043), and age (P = 0.004, Spearman rank correlation).

Prognostic implications of the motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease with respect to clinical, computertomographic and psychometric parameters.

Forty-four Parkinson patients (19 patients of the rigid-akinetic type, 13, of the rigid-akinetic-tremor type, and 12, of the tremor type) were included in a study in order to analyse correlations of the expression of the motor symptoms tremor, rigidity, akinesia, with other clinical parameters, computertomographic aspect of brain atrophy and psychometrically assessed cognitive parameters. Rigidity and akinesia are significantly positively correlated with the severity of motor dysability, stage of the disease, and brain atrophy, as is akinesia with a history of pharmacotoxic psychosis. Tremor is significantly negatively correlated with motor dysability, stage of the disease, and history of pharmacotoxic psychosis. Akinesia is correlated with visuomotor dysfunction (tested with Bender Gestalt Test) and rigidity with the depression score (Zung scale). The tremor type is favorable, the rigid-akinetic type unfavorable with respect to motor disability and psychosis.

[A special flicker fusion frequency method for detection of the effects of gerontopharmaceuticals exemplified by the L-eburnamonine study]. / Eine spezielle Flimmerverschmelzungs-frequenz-Methode zur Erfassung von Gerontopharmaka-Wirkungen am Beispiel einer L-Eburnamonine-Studie.

A clear difference between active drug and placebo is not always found when using the ascending and descending thresholds of the critical flicker fusion test (CFF). We selected a test requiring attention and concentration and performed again the CFF after this 6-minute concentration-test (reactive CFF). This reactive CFF was then used in a double-blind study in 30 ambulant patients with cerebro-vascular arteriosclerosis treated for 8 weeks with 80 mg/day cervoxan or placebo. After the treatment period the reaction of the CFF after the 6-minute concentration-test demonstrated a significantly more frequent improvement of the vigilance in the Cervoxan group compared to the placebo group.

Premorbid personality of Parkinson patients.

In a preliminary study 28 patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (14 males, 14 females; mean age 67 years, mean disease duration 9 years) were tested with the GIESSEN-TEST (GT) personality inventory in an attempt to define distinctive premorbid personality features of Parkinson's disease. Patients and close relatives were asked to fill out the test questionnaires with a retrospective judgement of healthy times; at the same time patients and relatives were interviewed for premorbid habits and personality traits of the patients. The results obtained suggest that parkinsonian patients are of an introverted and anancastic premorbid personality type. In the GIESSEN-TEST (GT) marked trends toward "overcontrol"; "depressiveness", "positive social resonance", and "social impotency" were observed. The results are discussed and related to findings of distinctive premorbid smoking and drinking habits of parkinsonian patients.