The relation of falls to fatigue, depression and daytime sleepiness in Parkinson's disease.

Publication/Presentation Date

1-1-2012

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To characterize non-motor symptoms in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) who experience falls compared to those who do not fall.

METHODS: Fifty-four individuals with PD were studied. Thirty-six were fallers and 18 were non-fallers. Fatigue was assessed by the Iowa Fatigue Scale. Excessive daytime sleepiness was assessed by the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, and depressive symptomatology was assessed by the short-form Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale.

RESULTS: Compared to non-fallers, fallers had more severe disability, greater general physical fatigue (p = 0.024), lower energy levels (p = 0.042) and less productivity (p = 0.007). Fallers had more depressive symptomatology than the non-fallers (p = 0.01). Excessive daytime sleepiness was not different between the two groups (p = 0.695).

CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with PD who fell had more severe motor and non-motor symptoms than those who did not fall. These non-motor symptoms included physical fatigue, energy, productivity and depressive symptomatology.

Volume

67

Issue

6

First Page

326

Last Page

330

ISSN

1421-9913

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences

PubMedID

22555623

Department(s)

Department of Medicine

Document Type

Article

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