Neuropsychiatric symptoms and their impact on cognitive functioning in patients with parkinson's disease: A systematic review of the literature.
Barbara Blasutto, Giulia Matrone, Byron Creese et al.
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In 30 seconds
This PRISMA-guided systematic review examined whether neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS), considered together, are associated with cognitive performance in people with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease without dementia. Eleven eligible studies compared cognition in patients with and without NPS, including longitudinal studies. Across the evidence reviewed, patients with NPS performed worse on cognitive tasks than those without NPS; this pattern was also reported when cognitive domains were examined separately. The abstract provides no pooled effect estimate or other quantitative measure of the difference.
Key findings
- Eleven studies met the review’s eligibility criteria.
- Patients with Parkinson’s disease and NPS showed poorer cognitive-task performance than patients without NPS, including in longitudinal studies.
- The poorer performance was also reported across cognitive domains considered separately.
Why it matters
The review suggests that neuropsychiatric symptoms considered collectively may help characterize cognitive difficulties in Parkinson’s disease, rather than attention being limited to individual symptoms. Because symptoms and their timing can vary across people and disease stages, recognizing their presence may provide clinically relevant context for understanding cognitive course and management.
What to keep in mind
The review included only 11 studies, which the authors identify as a limitation; the abstract reports no pooled quantitative estimate.