Fatigue in patients with Parkinson's disease.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the prevalence of fatigue in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) with that in healthy elderly people and to explore the suggestion that fatigue is an independent symptom of PD.


METHODS
Questionnaire survey.


METHODS
Community-based population.


METHODS
233 patients derived from a prevalence study in the county of Rogaland, Norway and 100 healthy elderly people with the same age and sex distribution as the patients with PD.


METHODS
A score for fatigue was obtained by combining the results from the rating scale for low energy in the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) with the results obtained from a 7-point scale devised to evaluate fatigue.


RESULTS
44.2% of the patients with PD and 18% of the healthy elderly control subjects reported fatigue. Fatigue was associated with depression, dementia, disease severity, disease duration, levodopa dose, and the use of sleeping pills. In a multivariate analysis, only depressive symptoms reached statistical significance. The prevalence of fatigue in patients with PD who were not depressed, demented, or had a sleeping disturbance was similar to that found in the total PD population.


CONCLUSIONS
Fatigue is a common symptom in PD. Although fatigue correlated with depressive symptoms, patients with PD who did not have depression, dementia, or sleep disturbances also reported a high prevalence of this symptom. This supports the hypothesis that fatigue is an independent symptom of PD overlapping with, but not causally related to, the concurrence of depressive symptoms.
Karlsen
K
K
Department of Neurology, Central Hospital of Rogaland, Stavanger, Norway.
Larsen
J P
JP
Tandberg
E
E
Jørgensen
K
K
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D015897:Comorbidity; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology; D018450:Disease Progression; D005221:Fatigue / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway / Q000453:epidemiology; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D013223:Statistics as Topic