International multicenter pilot study of the first comprehensive self-completed nonmotor symptoms questionnaire for Parkinson's disease: the NMSQuest study.
Nonmotor symptoms (NMS) of Parkinson's disease (PD) are not well recognized in clinical practice, either in primary or in secondary care, and are frequently missed during routine consultations. There is no single instrument (questionnaire or scale) that enables a comprehensive assessment of the range of NMS in PD both for the identification of problems and for the measurement of outcome. Against this background, a multidisciplinary group of experts, including patient group representatives, has developed an NMS screening questionnaire comprising 30 items. This instrument does not provide an overall score of disability and is not a graded or rating instrument. Instead, it is a screening tool designed to draw attention to the presence of NMS and initiate further investigation. In this article, we present the results from an international pilot study assessing feasibility, validity, and acceptability of a nonmotor questionnaire (NMSQuest). Data from 123 PD patients and 96 controls were analyzed. NMS were highly significantly more prevalent in PD compared to controls (PD NMS, median = 9.0, mean = 9.5 vs. control NMS, median = 5.5, mean = 4.0; Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, and t test, P < 0.0001), with PD patients reporting at least 10 different NMS on average per patient. In PD, NMS were highly significantly more prevalent across all disease stages and the number of symptoms correlated significantly with advancing disease and duration of disease. Furthermore, frequently, problems such as diplopia, dribbling, apathy, blues, taste and smell problems were never previously disclosed to the health professionals.
Movement Disorders Unit, Kings College Hospital, University Hospital Lewisham, Guy's King's and St. Thomas' School of Medicine, London, United Kingdom. ray.chaudhuri@uhl.nhs.uk
Kallol Ray
KR
Chaudhuri
Pablo
P
Martinez-Martin
Anthony H V
AH
Schapira
Fabrizio
F
Stocchi
Kapil
K
Sethi
Per
P
Odin
Richard G
RG
Brown
William
W
Koller
Paolo
P
Barone
Graeme
G
MacPhee
Linda
L
Kelly
Martin
M
Rabey
Doug
D
MacMahon
Sue
S
Thomas
William
W
Ondo
David
D
Rye
Alison
A
Forbes
Susanne
S
Tluk
Vandana
V
Dhawan
Annette
A
Bowron
Adrian J
AJ
Williams
Charles W
CW
Olanow
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009460:Neurologic Examination; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011788:Quality of Life; D012803:Sick Role; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires