Depression and financial capacity assessment in Parkinson’s disease with dementia: Overlooking an important factor?

Abstract

epression affects cognitive abilities, such as thinking, concentration and making decisions in both young adults and elders. However, financial capacity (which consists of multiple cognitive domains and specific skills) and depression in Parkinson's disease with dementia (PDD) are little investigated. Sixty participants divided into four groups (PDD with and without depressive symptoms, non-demented elders with and without depression) were examined with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) and the Legal Capacity for Property Law Transactions Assessment Scale (LCPLTAS)-full and short form. Results indicated that PDD patients' performance in cognitive functioning and financial capacity is severely impaired, while there is a statistically significant difference between depressed and non-depressed PDD patients. Differences in financial capacity performance indicate that depression should not be disregarded. Further studies on larger PDD population are necessary in order to investigate the decisive role of depression on financial capacity impairment.

Financial Capacity and Illiteracy: Does Education Matter in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment?

“…One hundred twenty Greek older adults (80% women, all right-handed) took part in the study as part of their neuropsychological assessment at the Memory Clinic of Papanikolaou General Hospital and elderly day care centers (as in similar studies [ 2–4 ]). Patients with aMCI were diagnosed using criteria for two clinical subtypes: 1) single-domain aMCI in which patients manifest isolated episodic memory impairments, and 2) multiple-domain aMCI with episodic memory impairments and deficits in one or more other cognitive domains.…”

“…All participants had prior financial experience in real-life financial transactions. We employed as in other studies [ 2–4 ] explicit exclusion criteria for all participants: known history of stroke, traumatic brain injury and related neurosurgical interventions, a history of substance abuse, concomitant serious medical illness (such as significant visual and/or auditory impairment not corrected sufficiently by visual/auditory aids, a history of other neurologic or psychiatric disorder that could account for the patient’s symptoms).…”

“…However, so far there is no research in patients diagnosed with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and the possible influence that literacy/illiteracy and varying levels of education may have on a specific form of instrumental activity of daily living with cognitive components; patients’ financial capacity. Loss of financial capacity is a common consequence of Alzheimer’s disease, but also of Parkinson’s disease, vascular dementia, and aMCI with and without comorbid depression [ 2–4 ]. The relationship between education and financial skills is not thoroughly examined, but it is likely that some individuals due to lack of education may have never obtained a high degree of numeracy as a study so far supports for the role of numeracy as a significant risk factor for financial exploitation [ 5 ].…”

APOE ɛ4 Allele and Financial Capacity Performance in Mild Alzheimer’s Disease: A Pilot Study

“…Participants were excluded as in similar studies [3][4][5][6] when the following criteria were present: a recorded history of stroke, a history of substance abuse, previous traumatic brain injury and related neurosurgical interventions, concomitant serious medical illness (significant visual and/or auditory impairment not corrected sufficiently by visual/ auditory aids, a history of other neurologic or psychiatric disorder that may interfere with the patient's neuropsychological performance).…”

“…Research conducted to date has demonstrated diminished performance of financial capacity in AD without examining the influence of genetic factors [3]. Not only AD, but also other forms of neurocognitive disorders, such as Parkinson's disease [4], vascular dementia [5], and amnestic mild cognitive impairment [6] have not been examined. Every individual has two copies of the gene and the combination of these copies determines the APOE genotype (2/2, 2/3, 2/4, 3/3, 3/4, and 4/4).…”