Glutamate cycle changes in the putamen of patients with de novo Parkinson's disease using H MRS.

Introduction: To investigate glutamatergic metabolism changes in the putamen of patients with de novo Parkinson's Disease (PD) and test the hypothesis that glutamate (Glu) levels are abnormally elevated in the putamen contralateral to where the motor clinical signs predominate as expected from observations in animal models.

Methods: H NMR spectra from 17 healthy control volunteers were compared with spectra from 17 de novo PD patients of who 14 were evaluated again after 2-3 years of disease progression. Statistical analysis used random-effects models.

Preoperative REM Sleep Behavior Disorder and Subthalamic Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation Outcome in Parkinson Disease 1 Year After Surgery.

Background And Objectives: To determine whether patients with Parkinson disease (PD) eligible for subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) with probable REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) preoperatively could be more at risk of poorer motor, nonmotor, and quality of life outcomes 12 months after surgery compared to those without RBD.

Methods: We analyzed the preoperative clinical profile of 448 patients with PD from a French multicentric prospective study (PREDISTIM) according to the presence or absence of probable RBD based on the RBD Single Question and RBD Screening Questionnaire. Among the 215 patients with PD with 12 months of follow-up after STN-DBS, we compared motor, cognitive, psycho-behavioral profile, and quality of life outcomes in patients with (pre-opRBD+) or without (pre-opRBD-) probable RBD preoperatively.

A case-control study investigating food addiction in Parkinson patients.

Eating disorders (EDs) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) are mainly described through impulse control disorders but represent one end of the spectrum of food addiction (FA). Although not formally recognized by DSM-5, FA is well described in the literature on animal models and humans, but data on prevalence and risk factors compared with healthy controls (HCs) are lacking. We conducted a cross-sectional study including 200 patients with PD and 200 age- and gender-matched HCs.

Visual hallucinations and illusions in Parkinson's disease: the role of ocular pathology.

Introduction: Whether different mechanisms, particularly ocular pathology, could lead to the emergence of visual hallucinations (VH) (defined as false perceptions with no external stimulus) versus visual illusions (VI) (defined as a misperception of a real stimulus) in Parkinson's disease (PD) remains debated. We assessed retinal, clinical and structural brain characteristics depending on the presence of VH or VI in PD.

Methods: In this case-control study, we compared retinal thickness using optical coherence tomography (OCT), between PD patients with: VI (PD-I; n = 26), VH (PD-H; n = 28), and without VI or VH (PD-C; n = 28), and assessed demographic data, disease severity, treatment, anatomical and functional visual complaints, cognitive and visuo-perceptive functions and MRI brain volumetry for each group of PD patients.

Compulsive eating behaviors in Parkinson's disease.

Purpose: Eating disorders are common in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients and often class in Impulse control disorders, however, little is known about their phenomenology. Specific symptoms and comorbidities were described in a group of PD patients in this preliminary study.

Methods: Over a period of 6 months, 51 PD patients who experienced significant changes in eating habits following diagnosis of PD and were interviewed during regularly scheduled follow-up visits.

Naftazone in advanced Parkinson's disease: An acute L-DOPA challenge randomized controlled trial.

Introduction: There is an unmet need to better control motor complications in Parkinson's disease (PD). Naftazone, which exhibits glutamate release inhibition properties, has shown antiparkinsonian and antidyskinetic activity in preclinical models of PD and in a clinical proof of concept study.

Methods: We conducted a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled cross-over trial in PD patients with motor fluctuations and dyskinesia testing naftazone 160 mg/day versus placebo for 14 days.

Impulse control disorders in Parkinson's disease patients with RLS: a cross sectional-study.

Background: Although dopamine replacement therapy is the main risk factor for the occurrence of Impulse Control Disorders (ICDs) in Parkinson's disease (PD), non-pharmacological risk factors for have also been identified in that population and sleep disorders could be part of them. Our objective is to determine whether Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS), that has been associated with more impulsive choices in general population regardless of dopaminergic therapy, could be associated with a specific psycho-behavioral profile and ICDs in PD.

Methods: Eighty consecutive PD patients were screened for the presence of RLS in a cross-sectional study.

Anatomical predictors of cognitive decline after subthalamic stimulation in Parkinson's disease.

We investigated whether pre-operative MRI measures of focal brain atrophy could predict cognitive decline occurring after deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). For that purpose, we prospectively collected data of 42 consecutive patients with PD who underwent bilateral STN-DBS. Normalized brain structure volumes and cortical thicknesses were measured on pre-operative T1-weighted MRI.

Subthalamus stimulation in Parkinson disease: Accounting for the bilaterality of contacts.

Background: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) in Parkinson's disease uses bi-hemispheric high-frequency stimulation within the subthalamus, however, the specific impacts of bilaterality of DBS are still not clear. Thus, we aimed to study the individual-level clinical impact of locations of right-left contact pair-up accounting for each subthalamic nucleus (STN) anatomy.

Methods: Contact locations and effects at 1 year were studied retrospectively in an unselected series of 53 patients operated between 2004 and 2010.

Hallucinations in schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease: an analysis of sensory modalities involved and the repercussion on patients.

Hallucinations have been described in various clinical populations, but they are neither disorder nor disease specific. In schizophrenia patients, hallucinations are hallmark symptoms and auditory ones are described as the more frequent. In Parkinson's disease, the descriptions of hallucination modalities are sparse, but the hallucinations do tend to have less negative consequences.

Randomized placebo-controlled trial of sodium valproate in progressive supranuclear palsy.

Objectives: Results from preclinical studies suggest that inhibition of glycogen synthase kinase (GSK-3) is a therapeutic option for tauopathies. The aim of the present study was therefore to determine the effects of sodium valproate (VPA), a GSK-3 inhibitor, on disease progression in progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP).

Patients And Methods: We performed a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, in 28 PSP patients who received VPA (1500mg/day) or matching placebo for 24 months.

Impact of localisation of deep brain stimulation electrodes on motor and neurobehavioural outcomes in Parkinson's disease.

Background: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) represents a well-established treatment in advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) for motor signs, but it is still debated concerning psychiatric effects.

Objective: Exploration of relation between position of active electrode contacts and neuropsychological and motor change after STN DBS procedure for PD.

Methods: A cohort of 34 patients who underwent STN DBS was followed for 6 months.

Emergence of restless legs syndrome after subthalamic stimulation in Parkinson's disease: a dopaminergic overstimulation?

Objective: Studies investigating the effects of subthalamic deep-brain stimulation (DBS-STN) on restless legs syndrome (RLS) in Parkinson's disease (PD) are limited and report conflicting results, with some describing the emergence of RLS after DBS-STN, while others report postoperative improvement of this disorder. Severe decrease in postoperative dopaminergic medications dose, which may unmask RLS symptoms, has been proposed to explain the emergence of RLS after surgery. We aimed to specifically identify factors associated with the risk of developing RLS after DBS-STN in order to enhance our comprehension of the underlying mechanisms contributing to the development of RLS in PD.

Validation of a Psycho-Sensory hAllucinations Scale (PSAS) in schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease.

Objective: If hallucinations are the most common of schizophrenic symptoms, they have been described in other pathologies such as Parkinson's disease (PD) but may differ considerably in their phenomenology. However, no multi-modal clinical scale with a transnosographic approach has been developed today. The purpose of this study was to create and validate a new tool for the hetero-assessment of all sensory modalities of hallucinations schizophrenia (SCZ) and in PD.

Increased risk of impulse control symptoms in Parkinson's disease with REM sleep behaviour disorder.

Objective: To assess the frequency of symptoms of impulse control disorders (ICD, namely pathological gambling, compulsive sexual behaviour, compulsive eating and compulsive shopping) and related behaviours (hobbyism, punding, walkabout and dopamine dysregulation syndrome) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) with and without probable rapid eye movement, sleep behaviour disorder (pRBD).

Methods: Two hundred and sixteen consecutive PD patients, attending two university-based movement disorders clinics, were screened for p-RBD using the RBD Single Question and the RBD Screening Questionnaire (RBDSQ). Current ICDs and related behaviours symptoms were assessed with the Questionnaire for Impulsive-Compulsive Disorders in PD (QUIP)-short form.

Central pain modulation after subthalamic nucleus stimulation: A crossover randomized trial.

Objective: To investigate the acute effect of subthalamic nuclei deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) and levodopa on pain and tolerance thresholds in patients with Parkinson disease. We hypothesized that a modification of pain threshold after STN-DBS would suggest a central modification of pain perception, whereas the absence of pain threshold change after STN-DBS would correspond to a peripheral mechanism via a decrease of painful stimuli.

Methods: Nineteen patients with Parkinson disease were included in this double-blind, randomized, crossover study.

Screening hypersexuality in Parkinson's disease in everyday practice.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to develop a short and reliable measure of hypersexuality that could be used in everyday practice in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD).

Design: The original questionnaire containing twenty-five-items, the Sexual Addiction Screening Test (SAST), was shortened and tested in a PD population.

Methods: Successive reductions were performed until a final set of items satisfied the model fit requirements.

Body weight gain and deep brain stimulation.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a neurosurgical technique that has now been available for some 25 years. It is used in the treatment of various motor disorders, e.g.

Hypersexuality and pathological gambling in Parkinson's disease: A cross-sectional case-control study.

Background: Substance and behavioral addictions have already been described separately or in combination in Parkinson's disease. However, no comparisons of the prevalence of addictive behaviors in patients with Parkinson's disease and the general population have been published. The objective of this study was to compare the prevalence and characteristics of addictions (gambling, hypersexuality, tobacco, and alcohol) in patients with Parkinson's disease and in a matched, paired sample from the general population.

[The Idiopathic Parkinson's disease: A metabolic disease?].

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder clinically characterized by motor impairments (tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity and postural instability) associated or not with non-motor complications (cognitive disorders, dysautonomia). Most of patients loose weight during evolution of their disease. Dysregulations of hypothalamus, which is considered as the regulatory center of satiety and energy metabolism, could play a major role in this phenomenon.

Orodispersible sublingual piribedil to abort OFF episodes: a single dose placebo-controlled, randomized, double-blind, cross-over study.

S90049, a novel sublingual formulation of the non-ergoline D(2)-D(3) agonist piribedil, has a pharmacokinetic profile promising to provide rapid relief on motor signs in Parkinson's disease (PD). We assessed the efficacy and safety of S90049 in aborting OFF episodes responding to subcutaneous apomorphine in PD patients with motor fluctuations. This was a single-dose double-blind double-placebo 3 x 3 cross-over study.

Is DBS-STN appropriate to treat severe Parkinson disease in an elderly population?

Objective: To assess the role of age in the results of bilateral deep brain stimulation in the subthalamic nucleus (DBS-STN), we carried out a study of two groups of patients regarding age at time of surgery.

Methods: We compared, up to 2 years after surgery, the clinical effects, safety, and quality of life in parkinsonian patients younger than 65 years old (young patients) vs parkinsonian patients 65 years old or older (old patients).

Results: The mean age was 57.

Safety of entacapone and apomorphine coadministration in levodopa-treated Parkinson's disease patients: pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic results of a multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study.

We investigated whether administration of the catechol-O-methyl transferase (COMT) inhibitor entacapone, at doses of 200 mg and 400 mg, alters the pharmacokinetics of apomorphine in Parkinson's disease patients experiencing severe motor fluctuations. In addition, the pharmacodynamics and safety of entacapone and apomorphine coadministration in these patients were examined. The study followed a three-sequence, three-period, crossover design.