In this paper, recently published in Movement Disorders, the authors explored, through a structured questionnaire, the potential effects of COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown on cognition in Parkinson’s Disease (PD) patients. In particular, they studied 28 PD patients with cognitive disturbance (10 PD with subjective cognitive complaints [SCI]; 10 PD with mild cognitive impairment [MCI] and 8 PD with dementia [PDD]). They found that the majority of PD patients did not experience a subjective worsening in parkinsonian symptoms, depression and sleep, but reported a subjective worsening of anxiety and cognitive symptoms (particularly of memory and attention), independent of age, education and disease duration. A functional decline was reported for one MCI-PD subject, who converted to PDD. These findings may suggest that the COVID-19 outbreak has indirectly affected non-motor symptoms such as anxiety and cognition in people living with PD. The authors concluded that their results, although obtained in a limited study population and based on the perceptions of patients and caregivers, highlight further the profound indirect impact of COVID-19 in PD patients.
https://doi.org/10.1002/mds.28254