Calculating the Risk of Parkinson-Related Cognitive Deficits

Currently, treatments for Parkinson disease are only effective in improving motor deficits. But the loss of cognitive abilities is just as devastating. About 25% of patients also experience cognitive deficits that impair function. One problem in developing treatments, however, is that patients with cognitive effects vary widely. Being able to predict the chance that someone with Parkinson disease will develop cognitive deficits could be a useful tool, say researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, who conducted a study partly funded by the National Institute Neurological Disorders and Stroke. They think they might have created just the tool: a computer-based risk calculator.

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The researchers combined data from 3,200 patients with Parkinson disease, representing more than 25,000 individual clinical assessments. They evaluated 7 known clinical and genetic risk factors associated with developing dementia, then used the information to build the risk calculator.

“By allowing clinical researchers to identify and select only patients at high risk for developing dementia, this tool could help in the design of ‘smarter’ trials that require a manageable number of participating patients,” said Clemens Scherzer, MD, the lead investigator.

By improving clinical trial design, the risk calculator could first help in the discovery of new treatments, the researchers say, then help determine which patients would benefit most from those treatments. “Prediction is the first step,” said Dr. Scherzer. “Prevention is the ultimate goal, preventing a dismal prognosis from ever happening.”

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