Digestive Symptoms of Autonomic Dysfunction in Parkinson’s Disease Patients

Abstract

It is nowadays recognized that Parkinson's disease (PD) involves a variety of non-motor manifestations, which sometimes seriously affect the quality of life in these patients. This study explored the prevalence of digestive symptoms in a group of 86 PD patients from the Southeastern Romania (56% male, mean age 70.6) who had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease according to the United Kingdom Brain Bank criteria; patient-reported digestive symptoms were assessed using the Scale for Outcomes in Parkinson's Disease for Autonomic Symptoms (SCOPA-AUT). The overall prevalence of digestive symptoms in the studied group was impressive (98,8%). Defecatory dysfunction (75.6%), ranks first followed by swallowing difficulties / choking (68.6%) and constipation (66.3%); 60.4% of study subjects experienced digestive symptoms "regularly" or even "often". The proportion of patients having more than 3 digestive symptoms increased almost progressively with disease duration; nevertheless, there was no statistically significant correlation between disease duration and the number or frequency of digestive symptoms.