Daily functioning, verbal fluency and emotional functioning of patients with Parkinson's disease treated pharmacologically and with deep brain stimulation

Abstract

Background: The population aging phenomenon of western societies results in an increase in the number of neurodegenerative diagnoses. We aimed to examine the differences in daily emotional and cognitive functioning between patients with Parkinson disease treated with different methods and healthy adults of similar age. Participants and Procedure: The participants (N = 52) were patients with Parkinson disease (n = 26) and healthy adults (n = 26) forming the control group. Daily, cognitive and emotional functioning were assessed with IADL, BDI II, COWAT and MMSE. Results: Significant differences (t(50) = 2.89, p = .006) in the daily functioning between clinical and control groups were found. The average scores evaluating the daily function of the patients treated pharmaceutically and surgically differed significantly (t(49) = 3.01, p = .004). Conclusions: The study provides confirmation of the differences in the daily functioning of the patients, taking into account varied treatment. Undoubtedly, further research on this topic with a larger number of participants is required.