Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Dec;9(12):e01448.
doi: 10.1002/brb3.1448. Epub 2019 Nov 19.

Alexithymia and anhedonia in early Richardson's syndrome and progressive supranuclear palsy with predominant parkinsonism

Francesca Assogna  1 , Clelia Pellicano  1   2 , Luca Cravello  3 , Cinzia Savini  1 , Lucia Macchiusi  1 , Mariangela Pierantozzi  4 , Alessandro Stefani  4 , Bruno Mercuri  5 , Carlo Caltagirone  1 , Francesco E Pontieri  6 , Gianfranco Spalletta  1
Affiliations

Alexithymia and anhedonia in early Richardson's syndrome and progressive supranuclear palsy with predominant parkinsonism

Francesca Assogna et al. Brain Behav. 2019 Dec.

Abstract

Introduction: Phenotypic variants of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) are all characterized by the combination of motor symptoms of parkinsonism with a number of neuropsychiatric and cognitive disorders. Despite the strong effort in characterizing these features in PSP, alexithymia and anhedonia have not been investigated at present. Here, we aimed at investigating the qualitative and quantitative differences of alexithymia and anhedonia in the two more frequent variants of PSP, Richardson's syndrome (PSP-RS) and PSP with predominant parkinsonism (PSP-P) compared to Parkinson's disease (PD) patients recruited within 24 months after the onset of motor symptoms.

Methods: One hundred fifty-five PD, 11 PSP-P, and 14 PSP-RS patients underwent clinical, neuropsychiatric, and neuropsychological evaluations. Alexithymia was assessed using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 item (TAS-20), and hedonic tone was measured by the Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS).

Results: In PSP-P and PSP-RS patients, the frequency of alexithymia diagnosis was higher than in PD. On the TAS-20 scores, PSP-RS performed worse in the total score and in F2 sub-scale when compared to PD. Among patients with diagnosis of depression, PSP-RS showed higher scores in TAS-20 total and TAS-20 F2 than PD. No significant differences in TAS-20 scores were found in nondepressed patients. Finally, we did not find significant differences among PD, PSP-P, and PSP-RS groups in the SHAPS scores.

Conclusions: Alexithymia is identifiable very early in PSP-P and PSP-RS patients. Alexithymic symptoms differentiate PSP-RS group from PD group but not between the two subtypes of PSP. Further, alexithymia in PSP seems to be predicted by the presence of depression. Altered emotional capability could be related to specific neurophysiological dysfunction occurring precociously in PSP; therefore, its identification could orient the diagnosis toward PSP cases.

Keywords: Parkinson's disease; alexithymia; anhedonia; nonmotor symptoms; progressive supranuclear palsy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.

References

    1. Assogna, F. , Cravello, L. , Caltagirone, C. , & Spalletta, G. (2011). Anhedonia in Parkinson's disease: A systematic review of the literature. Movement Disorders, 26(10), 1825–1834. 10.1002/mds.23815 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Assogna, F. , Cravello, L. , Orfei, M. D. , Cellupica, N. , Caltagirone, C. , & Spalletta, G. (2016). Alexithymia in Parkinson's disease: A systematic review of the literature. Parkinsonism & Related Disorders, 28, 1–11. 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2016.03.021 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bagby, R. M. , Parker, J. D. , & Taylor, G. J. (1994). The twenty‐item Toronto Alexithymia Scale–I. Item selection and cross‐validation of the factor structure. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 38(1), 23–32. - PubMed
    1. Bagby, R. M. , Taylor, G. J. , Parker, J. D. , & Loiselle, C. (1990). Cross‐validation of the factor structure of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 34(1), 47–51. 10.1016/0022-3999(90)90007-Q - DOI - PubMed
    1. Brenneis, C. , Seppi, K. , Schocke, M. , Benke, T. , Wenning, G. K. , & Poewe, W. (2004). Voxel based morphometry reveals a distinct pattern of frontal atrophy in progressive supranuclear palsy. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 75(2), 246–249. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types