Aims:

Parkinson Disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that is thought to be almost particularly featured by motor symptoms and non-motor symptoms such as sleep problems, cognitive impairments, anxiety, and alexithymia.

Methods:

This study was conducted on 67 patients with Idiopathic Parkinson Disease (IPD) between ages 57 and 79 who admitted to the Neurology Clinic in Okmeydani Training and Research Hospital and 70 healthy subjects. All participants had given written consent. Alexithymia status were assessed with Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) respectively.

Results:

Our results showed TAS scores were significantly higher in PD group (p<0.05). TAS- 20 scores were found to be higher in patients with IPD whose disease duration was longer than 8 years and it was no significant correlation was found between TAS-20 total score and Levadopa equivalent daily dose (Ledd) (p>0.05). Also, our findings showed significant correlation between alexithymia and UPDRS III scores which are higher than 30. One of the novel results in this study that alexithymia was found to be higher in smoked patients with IPD group than non-smoked, but it was not statically significant (p >0.05).

Conclusions:

The present study suggests that alexithymia may be related with the disease process of IPD and it should be considered in patients with IPD evaluation and management.

Keywords: Parkinson disease, Alexithymia, Non-motor symptoms.