Psychiatric symptoms in Parkinson's disease

Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder which is often reduced to a mere dysfunction of motor performance. Non-motor symptoms, however, are frequent impairments in PD and result in a major impact on the patients and their caregivers. The major neuropsychiatric comorbidities depression, anxiety, and psychotic symptoms are briefly discussed. Additionally, a brief outlook on deep brain stimulation and its effect on psychiatric symptoms is provided. Several studies did show that neuropsychiatric symptoms are underdiagnosed and consecutively treated inadequately. All in all more attention should be directed to the detection and treatment of psychiatric symptoms in PD patients in routine clinical settings.