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Cognitive status of patients with Parkinson’s disease and pathological gambling

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Abstract

The cognitive status of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) who developed pathological gambling (PG) during dopamine replacement therapy has been poorly explored. We compared clinical and cognitive features of 21 consecutive PD patients with active PG (PD–PG) versus 42 PD controls of similar disease duration without any impulse control disorder. All patients underwent full neuropsychological testing to evaluate executive and other frontal lobe-related functions, attention, learning and memory, language, visuospatial abilities and neuropsychiatric status [using Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI)] as well as the South Oaks Gambling Screen Scale (SOGS). PD–PG were younger (60.4 vs. 64.9, p = 0.01) and more frequently of male gender (85 vs. 57%, p = 0.02). The two groups did not differ in medication dosages and kind of dopamine agonist. PD–PG had higher MMSE (29.1 vs. 27.4, p = 0.02) and performed better at Rey Auditory Verbal learning Test (45.9 vs. 40.4, p = 0.04), verbal phonemic fluencies (38.7 vs. 31.8, p = 0.02), verbal semantic fluencies (44.9 vs. 37.4, p = 0.01) and attentive matrices (47.6 vs. 43.5, p = 0.05) while the remaining cognitive performances were comparable to controls. Moreover, based on the NPI, PD–PG had higher aggressiveness, irritability, disinhibition and eating disorders than controls. In conclusion the occurrence of PG in our cohort of patients with PD was associated with preserved executive functions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Parkinson Institute, Istituti Clinici di Perfezionamento, 20126, Milan, Italy

    Chiara Siri, Roberto Cilia, Danilo De Gaspari, Margherita Canesi, Nicoletta Meucci, Anna Lena Zecchinelli, Gianni Pezzoli & Angelo Antonini

  2. Department of Neurology, University of Milan-Bicocca, San Gerardo Hospital, Monza, Italy

    Roberto Cilia

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  1. Chiara Siri
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  2. Roberto Cilia
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  3. Danilo De Gaspari
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  4. Margherita Canesi
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  6. Anna Lena Zecchinelli
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  7. Gianni Pezzoli
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  8. Angelo Antonini
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Correspondence to Chiara Siri.

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Siri, C., Cilia, R., De Gaspari, D. et al. Cognitive status of patients with Parkinson’s disease and pathological gambling. J Neurol 257, 247–252 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-009-5301-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-009-5301-5

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