title: Dementia and treatment with L-dopa in Parkinson's disease.
abstract: We compared the neuropsychological performance of patients with Parkinson's disease who were young at onset of the disease (mean age, 41.4 years) and had received prolonged L-dopa treatment (mean, 52.1 months) with nontreated patients of the same age. A similar comparison was made for patients who were older at onset of the disease (mean, 62.1 years). There were no significant differences in cognitive and memory functions between the L-Dopa-treated and untreated young patients, whereas the L-Dopa-treated patients in the older age group performed more poorly than untreated patients in some memory tests (Wechsler Memory Scale I: logical and visual) and cognitive functions (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale: similarities, block design, and cognitive flexibility). Treatment duration, disease duration, and mean L-Dopa dose were comparable for the two age groups. After linear effects of age and disease duration had been eliminated, the duration of L-Dopa treatment did not correlate with the cognitive variables studied. These observations suggest that treatment with L-Dopa may not be the cause of cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hietanen
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Teräväinen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003071:Cognition / Q000187:drug effects; D003704:Dementia / Q000139:chemically induced*; D006801:Humans; D007980:Levodopa / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000187:drug effects; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D007980:Levodopa