Phenomenology and management of cognitive and behavioral disorders in Parkinson's disease. Rise and logic of dementia in Parkinson's disease

Abstract

An overview of studies on the issue of dementia in Parkinson's disease shows that, over time, there as been an evolution in the perception of the magnitude of the problem and of its nature. Dementia seems today to be part of the disease. This change in the understanding of the disease can be accounted for by various methodological problems and by difficulties, on one hand, in the definition of dementia and its differentiation from other conditions, and, on the other hand, in the diagnosis of the disease itself in individual cases. Optimal therapeutic strategies are also examined, either based on cholinesterase inhibitors or antiparkinsonian drugs and symptomatic measures. © 2006 Potagas and Papageorgiou; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.