Introduction: There are no specific scales for evaluating the broad profile of potentially relevant neuropsychological disorders associated to Parkinson's disease. Moreover, the information about their impact on the quality of life of caregivers (QLC) is scarce.
Objectives: This study outlines a model of a practical questionnaire developed to evaluate the neuropsychological disorders in Parkinson's disease and how to apply it to determine the effect they have on the QLC.
Patients and methods: A study was performed in two phases: 1. The application of a list of items from several scales used for neuropsychological disorders; 2. After selecting and reducing the number of items by means of psychometric methods, they were applied to a sample of patients. At the same time, using the data obtained from the above mentioned procedure, the impact of the neuropsychological disorders on the QLC was evaluated with the Glozman scale.
Result: In Parkinson's disease some neuropsychological disorders are relatively frequent, unlike those observed in a control group (either because of their frequency or their intensity) and are significantly associated to other aspects of the disease. There was an overall deterioration of the QLC and this worsened significantly as PD progressed and the disability of the patient increased. With respect to the neuropsychological disorders, verbal communication (rS = -0.59), cognitive behavioural mental status (rS = -0.54) and depression (rS = -0.41) (p < 0.001) were the domains significantly linked to deterioration of the QLC.
Conclusions: The QLC of patients with Parkinson's disease is decreased and is correlated with the extent of the patient's motor disorders, functional status and neuropsychological disorders.