Autonomic Dysfunction May Help Predict Early Cognitive Decline in Parkinson's Disease

Soonchunhyang University Professors Kwon Kyumil and Joo Byungeok Publish Research Findings

A study has found that autonomic dysfunction in early-stage Parkinson's disease patients is associated with cognitive decline. In particular, among various types of autonomic dysfunction, gastrointestinal dysfunction was found to have a closer association with cognitive decline in early-stage Parkinson's disease patients.

On July 24, Soonchunhyang University Seoul Hospital announced that a research team led by Professors Joo Byungeok and Kwon Kyumil from the Department of Neurology had published these findings in May in the international journal "Scientific Reports" in a paper titled "Association Between Cognitive Impairment and Autonomic Dysfunction in Newly Diagnosed Parkinson's Disease Patients."

Parkinson's disease is a complex disorder that not only causes motor dysfunction but also involves a variety of non-motor symptoms, including cognitive decline, sleep disturbances, and autonomic nervous system abnormalities.

The research team divided 82 newly diagnosed Parkinson's disease patients registered at Soonchunhyang University Seoul Hospital into two groups: 21 patients with mild cognitive impairment and 61 without. They then compared scores for various autonomic dysfunctions using the Scales for Outcomes in Parkinson's Disease-Autonomic (SCOPA-AUT).

The results showed that Parkinson's patients with cognitive impairment had autonomic dysfunction scores more than five times higher, and gastrointestinal-related dysfunction more than four times higher, than those without cognitive impairment. This indicates that overall autonomic nervous system abnormalities, including gastrointestinal dysfunction, are closely linked to cognitive decline in early-stage Parkinson's disease.

The worse the autonomic function, the poorer the memory and concentration. Higher autonomic dysfunction scores were associated with lower memory test scores and decreased concentration and judgment. This suggests that autonomic dysfunction can be directly connected to a decline in brain memory function, beyond just causing physical discomfort.

Professor Kwon Kyumil stated, "Through this study, we confirmed a significant association between autonomic dysfunction and cognitive decline in newly diagnosed Parkinson's disease. Identifying autonomic dysfunction could help predict cognitive decline in early-stage Parkinson's disease patients."

Professor Joo Byungeok explained, "Although this was a retrospective study conducted on a relatively small number of patients and caution is needed when generalizing the results, it is meaningful in that we evaluated various autonomic functions in early-stage Parkinson's disease patients using an autonomic function assessment scale."

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