LAUSR

OBJECTIVES This study aims to explore the clinical profiles and onset age-related difference of executive dysfunctions and behavioral changes in early drug-naïve patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). METHODS A cross-sectional analysis on 419 early stage drug-naïve PD patients was conducted. The frontal assessment battery (FAB) was used to assess executive functions and the frontal behavioral inventory (FBI) was used to assess behavioral changes. RESULTS Executive dysfunctions were detected in 113 patients (27.0%), and 219 patients (52.3%) displayed varied degrees of behavioral changes. The most frequent affected domain for the FAB was lexical fluency (31.7%), while the three most frequent affected domains for the FBI were apathy (26.0%), irritability (24.3%) and inattention (20.8%). Compared to the early-onset PD (EOPD) patients, the late-onset PD (LOPD) patients exhibited significantly higher frequent damage in FAB especially similarities, motor series, and conflicting instructions as well as lower frequent damage in lexical fluency. The frequencies of FBI-abnormal were not different between the two groups. Multivariate analyses indicated that age at PD onset was independently associated with FAB total score and its subscores including lexical fluency, motor series, conflicting instructions and go-no go task, but it has no relationship with FBI total score and its subscores. CONCLUSIONS Executive deficits and behavioral changes are common in the early stage of PD. Age at PD onset is independently associated with the performance of executive functions. However, behavioral changes in PD may be not affected by onset age.