[P01.123] Impaired Cognitive Profile in Parkinson Disease Patients with REM Sleep Behavior Disorder

Jean-Francois Gagnon, Melanie Vendette, Julien Doyon, Ronald Postuma, Anne Decary, Michel Panisset, Jessica Massicotte-Marquez, Jacques Montplaisir, Montreal, QC, Canada

OBJECTIVE: To determine the impact of the presence of REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) on the cognitive profile of nondemented Parkinson disease (PD) patients. BACKGROUND: Cognitive impairments affecting verbal memory, executive functions, and visuospatial processing are well documented in PD regardless of the presence of dementia. Although more than one third of PD patients have RBD, a parasomnia related to brainstem neuronal dysfunctions, very little is known about its association with cognitive impairment in PD. DESIGN/METHODS: Twenty-five nondemented PD patients (13 with RBD and 12 without RBD) and 13 healthy control subjects underwent a sleep laboratory recording and a neuropsychological evaluation. Cognitive tests assessing verbal memory (Rey auditory verbal learning test), executive functions (letter and semantic fluency test, trail making test parts A and B, and Stroop colour word test), visuospatial (Rey complex figure and block design subtest from the WAIS-III) and visuoperceptual (Bells test) functions have been administrated. One-way ANOVAs were used to assess between-group differences. RESULTS: No main effect of Group was observed for either age, educational level, MMSE score, Beck-II depression score, PD clinical variables, or mean dopaminergic medication dosage. Significant between-group differences were found on cognitive tasks measuring verbal memory (p=0.003), executive functions (p=0.001 semantic fluency test and trail making test part B), visuospatial (p=0.0001 block design subtest) and visuoperceptual (p=0.01) functions. Results showed that PD patients with concomitant RBD showed significantly poorer performance compared to both PD patients without RBD and control subjects. PD patients without RBD had no detectable cognitive impairment compared to control subjects. CONCLUSIONS/RELEVANCE: This study shows that cognitive impairment in nondemented patients with PD is closely related to the presence of RBD, and only PD patients with RBD have detectable cognitive impairment. Further studies are needed to better understand the association between RBD and the development of dementia in PD. Supported by: CIHR.
Category - Movement Disorders
SubCategory - Parkinsonism/Hypokinetic

Tuesday, May 1, 2007 7:00 AM

Poster Sessions: Parkinson's Disease: Nonmotor Aspects (7:00 AM-10:00 AM)

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