Cohort Profile: A population-based cohort to study non-motor symptoms in parkinsonism (EPIPARK)

Abstract

Parkinson's disease is increasingly viewed as a complex disorder including a range of typical non-motor symptoms in addition to the cardinal motor signs. This cohort was set up in 2010 to investigate the specificity of non-motor symptoms for Parkinson's disease. For this, we included several control groups with decreasing contrast from Parkinson's disease patients. Group definitions ranged from healthy control subjects to those with suspected early motor signs of parkinsonism. Using a mailed questionnaire, we screened 5838 inhabitants of Lübeck, Germany, out of a target population of 10 000 citizens, enquiring about motor impairment, pain, quality of life, comorbidities, somatization and demographics. Based on this information, participants were assigned to screening groups, and selected participants were invited for in-person examination (n = 623). The examination included cognitive examinations, transcranial ultrasound, a brief psychiatric interview and a standardized motor examination that was used to assign examination groups. In addition, all participants answered questionnaires addressing depression, anxiety, sleep and quality of life. The first-year follow-up examination was performed either in person using the same protocol or via mailed questionnaires. This study is ongoing and publications are in preparation, but you may contact the first author (meike.kasten@neuro.uni-luebeck.de) with suggestions for collaboration or data requests.

Neuroimaging abnormalities in individuals exhibiting Parkinson's disease risk markers

“…A total of 29 individuals with either hyposmia or SN+ or both (PR for PD risk) and 28 healthy controls without the presence of these PD risk markers (CONT) were investigated in this case‐control study (Table ). Participants were selected from a large epidemiological longitudinal study on nonmotor symptoms in PD, the EPIPARK study . Groups were matched for age, gender, dexterity, and years of education.…”

“…Trained research assistants performed olfactory testing using the Brief Smell Identification Test (BSIT), in which 12 microencapsulated odors are presented along with a 4‐item, forced‐choice option . The BSIT score corresponds to the number of correctly identified odors.…”

Assessment of Olfactory Function in MAPT-Associated Neurodegenerative Disease Reveals Odor-Identification Irreproducibility as a Non-Disease-Specific, General Characteristic of Olfactory Dysfunction

“…Therefore, we asked whether odor-identification irreproducibility is also seen in sporadic Parkinson’s disease, and whether it might be a general feature of olfactory dysfunction unrelated to neurodegenerative disease. For this, we retrospectively analyzed differences between annual tests of olfactory function of individuals participating in the EPIPARK study [29]. The EPIPARK study recruited and is following longitudinally 623 members of a representative, population-based cohort from Lübeck, Germany to investigate non-motor symptoms in parkinsonism.…”

Non-motor symptoms and quality of life in subjects with mild parkinsonian signs

“…(14)). After assignment to screening groups, randomly selected study participants were invited for in-person clinical and neuropsychiatric examinations (please see ref.…”