Introduction The overall frequency of postural abnormalities (PA) in Parkinson's disease (PD) is unknown. We evaluated the overall prevalence of PA and assessed the association with demographic and clinical variables. Methods For this multicenter, cross‐sectional study, consecutive PD outpatients attending 7 tertiary Italian centers were enrolled. Patients were evaluated and compared for the presence of isolated PA such as camptocormia, Pisa syndrome, and anterocollis and for combined forms (ie, camptocormia + Pisa syndrome) together with demographic and clinical variables. Results Of the total 811 PD patients enrolled, 174 (21.5%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 18.6%–24.3%) presented PA, 144 of which had isolated PA and 30 had combined PA. The prevalence of camptocormia was 11.2% (95% CI, 9%–13.3%), Pisa syndrome 8% (95% CI, 6.2%–9.9%), and anterocollis 6.5% (95% CI, 4.9%–8.3%). Patients with PA were more often male and older with longer disease duration, more advanced disease stage, more severe PD symptoms, a bradykinetic/rigid phenotype, and poorer quality of life. They were initially treated with levodopa, and more likely to be treated with a combination of levodopa and dopamine agonist, took a higher daily levodopa equivalent daily dose, and had more comorbidities. Falls and back pain were more frequent in PD patients with PA than in those without PA. Multiple logistic regression models confirmed an association between PA and male gender, older age, Hoehn and Yahr stage, and total Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale score. Conclusions PA are frequent and disabling complications in PD, especially in the advanced disease stages.

NMSs have been extensively studied in PD patients but not in other forms of parkinsonism such as Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP). The primary objective of this study was to analyze the frequency, severity and the type of non-motor symptoms (NMS) in PSP patients using the non-motor symptoms scale (NMSS). The secondary objective was to differentiate NMS between PSP and Parkinson’s disease (PD). We enrolled in this cross-sectional study 50 consecutive PSP and 100 matched Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, in the proportion PSP/PD = 1/2, matched in age, sex, and disease duration. Motor and Non Motor symptoms (different scales for each disease) were evaluated at baseline using PSP scale, SCOPA Motor, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA), HADS, Hamilton, and Non Motor Symptom scale (NMSS). Comparative analysis was done using chi-squared test, Mann-Whitney test and Fisher’s exact test. Fifty PSP (56% female) and 100 PD (59% female) patients completed the study protocol and were included for statistical analysis. The NMSS total domains score in the PSP group was 77.58 ± 42.95 (range 14–163) with NMS burden grade: 4, very severe, and the in the PD group was 41.97 ± 35.45 (range: 0–215) with NMS burden grade: 3, severe. The comparative analysis showed that NMS total score (p < 0.0001), Sleep/Fatigue (p = 0.0007), Mood/Apathy (p = 0.0001), Gastrointestinal (p < 0.0001), and Urinary dysfunction (p = 0.0001) domains were significantly more severe in PSP patients than in PD. This observational study reports that NMSs are very frequent in PSP patients hence the higher burden of NMS in PSP specifically related to mood/apathy, attention/memory, gastrointestinal, urinary disturbances compared to PD.

The approach to early Parkinson’s disease denotes the communication of the diagnosis and important decisions, such as when and how to start treatment. Evidence based medicine and guidelines indicate which drugs have robust evidence of efficacy and tolerability in this specific population. However, de-novo patients may show different characteristics and they may be in a different phase of their disease.In this review, we will give an insight into the appropriate time therapy should be started and the actual knowledge about disease modification therapies. Moreover, the drugs indicated for early treatment will be considered and an indication for the use of these drugs will be given with the support of the actual knowledge.

Background and purpose In patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) with motor fluctuations, total daily OFF time is comprised of both end‐of‐dose time and the time taken to turn ON with medication. However, little is known about the impact of delays in ON time. Methods This was a single‐visit pilot study of fluctuating patients with PD attending a routine appointment. During a single visit, adult patients with idiopathic PD who were treated with levodopa for at least 1 year completed a questionnaire evaluating the time waiting for ON and the symptoms experienced while waiting to turn ON. Patients then completed a 5‐day home time‐to‐ON diary, where they documented how long it took to turn ON following their first morning dose of levodopa in 5‐min increments. Results A total of 151 consecutive patients completed the study survey, of whom 97 (64.2%) experienced motor fluctuations. Of the patients experiencing motor fluctuations, 54 (56%) reported delays in ON time (latency >30 min) following their first morning dose of levodopa. Half (51%) reported that they had experienced delayed ON at least once in the previous week and 21% reported having delayed ON during all seven mornings of the previous week. In addition, 10% of patients reported having dose failures on four or more mornings during the previous week. The most common symptoms experienced while waiting for ON were slowness (94.8%), fatigue (87.6%), reduced dexterity (82.5%), problems in walking (66.0%) and problems with balance (59.8%). Conclusion Early‐morning OFF problems such as delays in time to ON and dose failures are common in levodopa‐treated patients with PD.