Læknablaðið : fylgirit - 01.03.1983, Page 255
No significant correlation was found between the patients sex or
age, to duration of disease, Barthel's Index score or Mental Test
score. Four patients had histories of stereotaxic surgery and the
family history of Parkinson's disease was negative in 23 patients.
Six patients (15%) died during the six months period of this study.
The prevalence of other major diseases is shown on Table 1 . Cere-
bral vascular accidents had occured in 40% of patients, 15% had
histories of ischemic heart disease, 5% of depression and 3% of
dementia. On examination 49% of patients were found to be hyper-
tensive and 16% had an irregular puls.
The drug treatment at the time of examination is shown on Table 2.
Most patients were on levodopa and Sinemet (90% levodopa and 10%
caridopa) was the most common drug preparation in use. The average
dose of Sinemet was 510 mg/day. Only three patients were having no
specific drug treatment. Drugs for other medical conditions were
required by 60% of the patients.
The incidence of drug side-effects is shown on Table 3. Approxi-
mately 44% of patients experienced drug side-effects in one form
or another.
The Mental Test score revieled 14 patients with moderate or severe
impairment of intellectual function. Table 4 shows a comparison of
the demented and not-demented patients with regard of age, duration
of disease, age at onset, Barthel's Index score and Mental Test
score. The demented patients were found to be older, had a shorter
duration of illness and were more disabled compared with the group
of not-demented patients.
The mean score of disability by the Barthel Index was 79 (range 35-
100) for the whole group. The disability score correlated poorly
with age (r = 0.31) within the group.
Discussion
The age distribution of patients with Parkinson's disease has been
reviewed by Hoehn (1976) who found the modal age of onset had risen
almost a decade since the effects of the pandemic of encephalitis
lethargica began to wane off during the late fourties (6). The
considerably higher age of onset in the present series may however
reflect an inclusion of patients with parkinsonian symptoms due to
other and different disorders of the central nervous system. The
Mental Test score revieled a large subgroup of patients with symp-
toms of dementia. These patients were older and a lower Barthel
Index score indicated that their disability was greater than the
younger group.
Comparable results have been obtained elsewhere. In a longterm
follow up study in Gothenburg, Granerus (1980) found 27% of patients
suffering from Parkinson's disease were also demented. These
patients were also at a higher age and had a shorter duration of
their parkinsonian symptoms. Her finding were based on screening
tests for mental function which had not earlier been available. (7).
In a recent survey of hospital inpatient in geriatric departments
in England, White and Barnes (1981) found the prevalence of
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