Recent findings suggest that the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and its subscales appear to primarily measure anxiety, apathy, and fatigue in Parkinson disease (PD), or alternatively, these symptom dimensions may be predominant in PD‐depression. In this study, non-demented individuals with PD (n=158) completed the GDS‐30, and items were subjected to a principle component analysis. GDS total and factor scores were correlated with depression items from the Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson's disease Rating Scale (MDS‐UPDRSd) and Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMDd), as well as with the Apathy Scale (AS), State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Modified Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS), Parkinson disease Sleep Scale, and a Subjective Cognitive Function composite score. Researchers found:

• The GDS total score was strongly correlated with divergent neuropsychiatric measures (AS, r = 0.57; STAI, r = 0.66; MFIS, r = 0.60), while only moderately correlated with convergent measures (MDS‐UPDRSd, r = 0.36; HAMDd, r = 0.32).
• Linear regression analyses revealed standardized measures of anxiety, apathy, and fatigue independently predicted the GDS total score, while depression items (MDS‐UPDRSd and HAMDd) failed to reach significance.