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Lack of independent mood-enhancing effect for dopaminergic medications in early Parkinson's disease
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Lack of independent mood-enhancing effect for dopaminergic medications in early Parkinson's disease

Alberto J Espay, Eric D Foster, Christopher S Coffey, Liz Uribe, Chelsea J Caspell-Garcia, Daniel Weintraub and Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative
Journal of the neurological sciences, Vol.402, pp.81-85
07/15/2019
DOI: 10.1016/j.jns.2019.05.009
PMID: 31125734
url
https://zenodo.org/record/3873416View
Open Access

Abstract

A direct antidepressant effect has been reported for certain dopaminergic medications used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD). To examine whether dopaminergic medications may exert differential effects on mood in early PD. We analyzed prospectively-collected 5-year data on 405 early, drug-naïve (at baseline) PD patients enrolled in the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) cohort study, initiated on levodopa, dopamine agonists (DAs), or monoamine-oxidase type B inhibitors (iMAO-B) under naturalistic conditions. The outcome for depressive symptoms was the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) score. Potential motor and cognitive confounders were measured using the Unified Parkinson's disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS-III) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Three statistical models were used to determine medication effects on GDS-15 scores: unadjusted, adjusted, and a marginal structural model. One-third of patients in this cohort met GDS-15 threshold for clinically-significant depressive symptoms (GDS-15 ≥ 5). There was a marginal positive effect on GDS-15 scores after iMAO-B treatment initiation (−0.35 95%; CI: −0.73, 0.04; p = 0.08). There were no significant interactions between any of the three medication groups, but robust interactions between MoCA scores and both DAs (p = 0.005) and iMAO-B (p = 0.03) use on GDS-15 scores. Specifically, as MoCA scores worsened, DAs yielded a steeper worsening of GDS-15 scores while iMAO-B a moderating effect on GDS-15. Dopaminergic medications have no direct effect on mood in early, unselected PD patients. •Mood effects by dopaminergic effects are confounded by cognitive and motor function.•There was no adjusted mood stabilizing or enhancing effect by any dopaminergic drug.•As cognition worsens, dopamine agonists are associated with worse depression scores.•MAO-B inhibitors may have a modest attenuating effect in the cognition-depression link.
Depression Dopamine agonists Levodopa MAO-B inhibitors Mood Parkinson's disease

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