Depression, anxiety and non-motor symptoms on initiation of intrajejunal levodopa/carbidopa therapy

In Parkinson’s disease (PD), clinical observations and some studies suggest that depression and anxiety are linked to motor fluctuations. We studied prospectively 10 patients with advanced PD just before initiation of intrajejunal levodopa/carbidopa therapy, and after 1 and 3 months of regular treatment. Motor symptoms, motor fluctuations, non-motor symptoms, quality of sleep, symptoms of depression and anxiety were evaluated with the appropriate scales. As expected, motor symptoms and motor fluctuations improved considerably. Non-motor symptoms, quality of sleep and depression also improved significantly. However, anxiety score remained unchanged during the study. Our data in a small numbers of patients indicate that all aspects of mental and psychic symptoms are not alleviated within a short period of reduction of motor fluctuations.