Neurologists diagnostic accuracy of depression and cognitive problems in patients with parkinsoni

Bouwmans AEP et al. – Neurologists' intuition and clinical judgment alone are not accurate for detection of depression or cognitive impairment in patients with recent–onset parkinsonian symptoms because of low sensitivity despite of high specificity.

Methods

• Two experienced neurologists took the history and examined 104 patients with a recent-onset parkinsonian disorder, and assessed the presence of depression and cognitive impairment.
• On the same day, all patients underwent a Hamilton Depression Rating Scale test, and a Scales for Outcomes in Parkinson's Disease-Cognition-test (SCOPA-COG).

Results

• The sensitivity of the neurologists for the topic depression was poor: 33.3%.
• However, the specificity varied from 90.8 to 94.7%.
• The patients' sensitivity was higher, although the specificity was lower.
• On the topic CI, the sensitivity of the neurologists was again low, in a range from 30.4 up to 34.8%: however the specificity was high, with 92.9%.
• The patients' sensitivity and specificity were both lower, compared to the number of the neurologists.

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