Communication impairment in patients with Parkinson's disease: challenges and solutions

Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD) is viewed primarily as a motor disorder. However, recent researches suggest that there is also a variety of communication deficits associated with this disorder. In this paper, we review some of these researches and provide a set of recommendations designed to improve communicative outcomes when interacting with people who have PD. A variety of comprehension deficits have been documented in PD, including syntactic, pragmatic, and semantic deficits, as well as an impaired ability to recognize emotions. People with PD are also impaired in terms of language production, possibly in part because of their comprehension deficits. Major production deficits include reduced informational content, longer and more frequent pauses and associated turn-taking disruption, inappropriate levels of politeness, and deficits in various nonverbal accompaniments. Awareness of these deficits, and simple, common sense communicative adjustments, can greatly improve communication with people with PD.