title: Screening for anxiety symptoms in Parkinson disease: a cross-sectional study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A limited number of studies examined anxiety in Parkinson disease (PD). Questionable validity of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fourth Edition) defined anxiety disorders in PD population as well as a lack of validated rating scales hampered the investigation in this field.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To screen for prevalence of anxiety symptoms and their associated demographic and clinical features in an outpatient-based cohort with PD.
  
  
  METHODS
  A consecutive series of 360 patients with PD underwent investigation with the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS), the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, Neuropsychiatric Inventory, section E (anxiety), motor scoring with Hoehn and Yahr staging, the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale, and cognitive screening with the Mini-Mental State Examination.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In all, 136 (37.8%) patients with PD of our cohort had anxiety symptoms, whereas both depression and anxiety were recorded in 5.6% of the patients, while in 56.7% neither anxiety nor depression was present. Female gender, motor disability, and core depression symptoms were the main markers of anxiety in patients with PD. The severity of anxiety symptoms was not associated with asymmetry of motor symptoms. Education, disease duration, and levodopa dose were poor predictors in the model. The HARS had a satisfactory inter-item correlation, convergent validity, and factorial structure.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Anxiety may be present as an isolated symptom, with specific demographic and clinical markers, and not only as a feature of depression in PD population. This highlighted the importance of identifying anxiety symptoms when treating patients with PD.
authors: School of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Serbia. steela21@gmail.com
authors: Elka
authors: E
authors: Stefanova
authors: Ljubomir
authors: L
authors: Ziropadja
authors: Mirjana
authors: M
authors: Petrović
authors: Tanja
authors: T
authors: Stojković
authors: Vladimir
authors: V
authors: Kostić
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000978:Antiparkinson Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014202:Tremor / Q000209:etiology
chemical_list: D000928:Antidepressive Agents; D000978:Antiparkinson Agents