title: Non-dipping nocturnal blood pressure and psychosis parameters in Parkinson disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Non-motor symptoms are increasingly recognized in Parkinson disease (PD) and include physical as well as psychological symptoms. A psychological condition that has been well studied in PD is psychosis. Cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction in PD can include a reversed or loss of blood pressure (BP) circadian rhythm, referred to as nocturnal non-dipping. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between 24 h ambulatory blood pressure measurements (ABPM), i.e., absence or presence of nocturnal dipping, and psychosis scores in PD.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-one patiens with PD underwent 24 h ABPM using an autonomic protocol. A decrease in nocturnal mean arterial blood pressure of less than 10% was defined as non-dipping. Patients were interviewed (including the brief psychiatric rating scale; BPRS) for the assessment of psychosis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eleven patients were dippers and 10 were non-dippers. BPRS scores were higher in non-dippers, who, on average, met the criteria for psychosis (mean non-dipper BPRS: 34.3 ± 7.3 vs mean dipper BPRS: 27.5 ± 5.3; cutoff for "mildly ill" 31). There was a correlation between BPRS scores and non-dipping, indicating that those patients who had a blunted nocturnal fall in BP were more prone to psychotic symptoms (Pearson's Correlation = 0.554, p = 0.009).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that, among PD patients, a non-dipping circadian rhythm is associated with more severe symptoms of psychosis than is a dipping circadian rhythm. This association warrants further investigation.
authors.affiliation: Autonomic Laboratory, Department of Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology, Faculty of Health, University of Witten/Herdecke, HELIOS-Klinikum Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Stuebner
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vichayanrat
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Low
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Mathias
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Isenmann
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Haensch
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D018660:Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*