Describe the non-motor symptomatology present in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS) and determine differences to patients without the syndrome.  

In a previous study, we identified clinical correlates in PD patients with MetS and found significant differences in non-motor symptomatology, based on NMSS total score, compared to patients without the syndrome. Scarce literature has evaluated non-motor symptoms in PD patients with MetS and no other study has intended to describe their presence based on NMSS and compare it to patients without the syndrome.   

We analyzed 99 patients with PD diagnosis attending the Neurology outpatient clinic of the University Hospital. At initial assessment, scores evaluating motor, non-motor, sleep disorders, quality of life and sleep disorders were registered. We conducted a description of Non-motor symptoms scale (NMSS) scores per domain in patients diagnosed with MetS according to WHO criteria and compared these with patients having 2 or 0-1 criteria positive. 

PD patients with MetS had higher scores in the following domains mood/cognition (p=0.036), perceptual problems/hallucinations (p=0.042), gastrointestinal tract (p=0.006), sexual function (p=0.019) and miscellaneous (p=0.011). No significant differences were observed in the following domains: sleep/fatigue, cardiovascular including falls, urinary and attention/memory. 

PD patients having MetS experience worse non-motor symptomatology related to mood, perception, sexual function and gastrointestinal tract. More studies addressing the relation between MetS and non-motor symptoms are needed.