Asociación entre el sexo y los síntomas no motores en pacientes con enfermedad de Parkinson en el área de neurología del Hospital Teodoro Maldonado Carbo, entre los años 2019-2020.

Abstract

Introduction: Parkinson's disease is considered the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disease worldwide. It occurs as a consequence of the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra in the brain, which leads to a dopamine deficiency. Non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease are considered part of the clinical manifestations of the disease and are highly disabling for the patient, causing a great impact on quality of life. It has been described that there are certain differences between motor symptoms and the patient's sex. However, this relationship has not been studied in the Ecuadorian population, and the information regarding this topic is scarce or null. Objective: Determine the relationship by gender in the frequency of non-motor symptoms. Methods: A retrospective, observational, cross-sectional and analytical study was carried out in patients diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease (Neurology Area) at Teodoro Maldonado Carbo Hospital from January 2019 to December 2020, being our main objective to determine if there is an association between sex and non-motor symptoms. The non-motor symptoms presented in each patient were collected in the medical records, based on the "non-motor symptom scale" (NMSS) questionnaire, and then, patients were grouped according to their sex. Chi-square test was applied looking for association between variables. P was calculated for an alpha level of 0.05. SPSS Statistics 19 software was used for statistical analysis. Results: 237 patients were analyzed within the study, 78 (32.9%) women and 159 (67.1%) men. Insomnia was the most frequent non-motor symptom in both female and male. After insomnia, the symptoms presented in the majority of women with PD, in order of prevalence, were: anxiety, depression, headache and memory impairments. In males, the second most frequent symptom was headache, in third place, anxiety, in fourth place, memory impairments, and finally, depression. Conclusion: Neuropsychiatric disorders are the most prevalent non-motor disorders in both sexes. Anxiety and depression are linked to female gender, and nocturia is linked more frequently to male gender in patients with Parkinson's disease. These results can be used for further clinical studies.