title: Cognitive Impairment in Fall-Related Studies in Parkinson's Disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is increasing evidence to suggest a tight relationship between cognitive impairment and falls in Parkinson's disease (PD). Here, we draw attention to a potentially significant flaw in the existent falls-related research, namely the apparent exclusion of patients with cognitive impairment or dementia.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Our objective was to review all published, on-going or scheduled fall-related intervention studies, in order to investigate the extent to which cognitively impaired individuals with PD were included in these studies.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analyzed published controlled trials regarding falls and PD in commonly used databases, as well as relevant ongoing clinical trials registered within the World Health Organization database, clinicaltrials.gov and the European Clinical Trials Database.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fourteen of the fifteen published studies included had explicit cognitive exclusion criteria as part of their study protocol. Most of the 54 on-going PD fall-related studies excluded patients with cognitive impairment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This suggests that individuals with cognitive impairment or dementia are excluded from fall-related research studies. We strongly recommend that future work in this area should include a representative sample of patients with PD, including subjects with cognitive decline.
authors.affiliation: CNS - Campus Neurológico Sénior, Torres Vedras, Portugal.|Clinical Pharmacology Unit, Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: Josefa M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Domingos
authors.affiliation: Clinical Pharmacology Unit, Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Lisbon, Portugal.|Center for Interdisciplinary Research Egas Moniz (CiiEM), Instituto Superior de Ciências da Saúde Egas Moniz, Monte de Caparica, Portugal.
authors.forename: Catarina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Godinho
authors.affiliation: Life Care Centers of America, Cleveland, Tennessee, USA.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dean
authors.affiliation: Clinical Pharmacology Unit, Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Coelho
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation, Hospital Santa Maria, Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: Anabela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pinto
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University Medical Centre St Radboud, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Bastiaan R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Bloem
authors.affiliation: CNS - Campus Neurológico Sénior, Torres Vedras, Portugal.|Clinical Pharmacology Unit, Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Lisbon, Portugal.|Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: Joaquim J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Ferreira
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000368:Aged; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003704:Dementia / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012307:Risk Factors
keywords: Falls; Parkinson disease; clinical trials; cognition; rehabilitation