%0 Journal Article
%T Impact of Anxiety on Quality of Life in Parkinson's Disease
%A Kristine K. Hanna
%A Alice Cronin-Golomb
%J Parkinson's Disease
%D 2012
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2012/640707
%X In Parkinson's disease (PD), both the patient and the health care provider look for ways to preserve the patient's quality of life. Many studies focus on the impact of depression and motor disability on poor life quality but neglect to examine the role of anxiety. We investigated the impact of anxiety and depression on health-related quality of life in PD, using the Parkinson's Disease Quality of Life measure (PDQ-39). Symptoms of anxiety, more than depression, cognitive status, or motor stage, significantly affected quality of life in 38 nondemented patients with mild-to-moderate motor disability. Stepwise regression analyses revealed that anxiety explained 29% of the variance in the PDQ-39 sum score, and depression explained 10% of the variance beyond that accounted for by anxiety. The findings suggest that primary management of anxiety as well as depression may be important to optimizing the quality of life of PD patients. 1. Introduction ParkinsonĄ¯s disease (PD) is a chronic and progressive neurological condition in which nonmotor disturbances as well as motor deficits significantly impact quality of life. The disease is characterized by motor signs including tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia, and disorders of gait and balance. In addition to the difficulties in motor control, which occur as a result of progressive loss of the dopamine-producing neurons in the substantia nigra and dysfunction of the basal ganglia, PD patients also frequently experience disturbances in mood and cognition. These prevalent and disabling nonmotor symptoms may have a greater impact on the patientsĄ¯ quality of life than do the principal motor features of PD [1¨C6]. Depression is the most commonly explored mood disorder influencing quality of life in PD and has been found to be the best predictor overall for quality of life in several studies [3¨C7]. In a population-based survey using the Parkinson's Disease Quality of Life Questionniare (PDQ-39) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Schrag and colleagues [5] found that the factor most strongly related to poorer quality of life was depression, although motor disability was also significantly associated. In a model predicting PDQ-39 scores, the BDI score accounted for 54% of the variance, whereas motor disability scores accounted for only 15%. The Global ParkinsonĄ¯s Disease Survey Steering Committee [6] also found the BDI score to be the most significant predictor of quality of life, accounting for 58% of the variance in PDQ-39 scores, whereas stage of motor severity and PD medication (levodopa, either alone or in combination
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/pd/2012/640707/