Depression and its effects on quality of life in patients of Parkinson′s disease

Objective To investigate the prevalence of depression in Parkinson′s disease (PD) patients, analyze the clinical features of depression in PD patients, and evaluate its impact on quality of life. Methods One hundred and ninety-five PD patients and 63 normol controls were recruited in this study. The detailed clinical information was documented. Unified Parkinson′s Disease Rating Scale and Hoehn-Yahr stage were used to evaluate the severity of motor function impairment in PD patients. Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale were employed to assess the severity of depression and anxiety in PD patients. The 39-item Parkinson′s Disease Questionnaire was applied to assess the quality of life. The cross-sectional data were calculated with SPSS 21.0 statistic software, and P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results The average score of HAMD was 8.74±5.51 in 195 PD patients. Depressive symptoms were found in 54.4%of the PD patients (mild depression 48.7% and moderate depression 5.6%). Depression significantly impaired the quality of life in PD. Compared with PD without depression, PD with depression earned more scores in anxiety factor (4 (2, 5) vs 1(0, 2), Z=-8.69, P=0.00), blocker factor (2 (1, 3) vs 0(0, 1), Z=-7.95, P=0.00), cognitive factor (1 (0, 2) vs 0(0, 0), Z=-7.01, P=0.00), sleep factor (2(1, 3) vs 0(0, 1), Z=-6.42, P=0.00) and despair factor (2(1, 3) vs 1(0, 1), Z=-7.16, P=0.00). There was no significant difference in day and night change (0(0, 0) vs 0(0, 0), Z=-0.19, P=0.85) and body weight (0(0, 0) vs 0(0, 0), Z=-1.28, P=0.20) between these two groups. The PD with depression obtained higher scores in total quality of life (30(22, 44) vs 14 (5, 24), Z=-7.03, P=0.00), motor function (6 (2, 13) vs 1 (0, 5), Z=-3.67, P=0.00), daily life ability (4 (1, 8) vs 1 (0, 4), Z=-2.81, P=0.01) , emotional health (5 (2, 11) vs 0 (0, 2), Z=-5.82, P=0.00), humiliation (2 (0, 5) vs 0 (0, 1), Z=-3.10, P=0.00), social support (0 (0, 1) vs 0 (0, 0), Z=-2.86, P=0.00), recognition function (4 (2, 6) vs 2 (0, 4), Z=-2.87, P=0.00), sociability(1(0, 3) vs 0(0, 1), Z=-3.25, P=0.00), and body pain (3 (1, 6) vs 1 (0, 2), Z=-3.91, P=0.00) than patients without depression. Conclusions Incidence of depression (mainly mild) in PD patients is high. Depressive symptoms significantly affect the quality of life of PD patients. Key words: Parkinson disease; Depression; Quality of life