The Profile of the Depression and it's Intervention Strategy in Patients With Parkinson's Disease in China

Depression is considered to be the most common neuropsychiatric disturbance of PD. Prevalence rates of depressive disorders in Parkinson's disease(PD) vary widely across studies, ranging from 2.7% to more than 90%. A systematic review of the 36 articles concerning PD and depression indicates that the weighted frequency of depressive PD was 52%.

Investigators' previous study on non-motor symptoms in 81 Chinese PD patients demonstrated that prevalence of loss of interest and depression(sadness) were 48.7% and 36.7% by Non-motor symptoms questionnaire (NMSQuest) separately, which was similar to average global data. But another Chinese data published in 2008 showed that the prevalence of depression in PD patients was only 12%, no statistical difference with controls(2%). Thus, investigators plan to initiate a larger study to understand if PD depression in China is similar to it in western countries.

Depression would occur at the early stage of the disease or proceed the motor symptoms, usually accompanied with other non-motor symptoms including apathy, sleep disorder, cognitive impairment, and etc. The effects of depression on quality of life might refer to a wider range. There is lack of solid data to reveal the harm of depression on quality of life of PD patients and caregivers. In clinical practice, the disease burden of PD depression is usually underestimated by physicians and patients.

Although PD depression affects QoL of patients and caregivers, PD depression would be relieved by medication, which was clearly recommended by international and Chinese PD guidelines. But the PD depression treatment status in Chinese clinical practice is not systematically analyzed before. In this study, investigator will summarize the treatment profile of PD depression to see if PD depression is properly treated according to guideline.