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Abstract Details

Impact of Parkinson’s Disease on Faith and Spirituality - a Comparative Study
Movement Disorders
P5 - Poster Session 5 (5:30 PM-6:30 PM)
10-047
The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of Parkinson’s disease (PD) on faith and spirituality.
There are various studies recently suggesting that spirituality and faith involve similar dopaminergic pathways as that of PD which led to a great opportunity to examine roles of such network for finding the link if present.
We conducted a comparative study on impact of PD on faith and spirituality among disability score matched PD and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. We collected information using a structured questionnaire which assessed demographic information, clinical history and neurologic function. Disability was evaluated using a questionnaire based on the Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS). Faith and spirituality were assessed by the Brief multidimensional measure of religiousness/spirituality (BMMRS).
In a period of 4 months, 48 PD and 48 RA patients were interviewed. Most of the patients are age > 61 year. SDS’s total score is not significantly different between PD patients (Median = 8) and RA patients (Median = 7), with Mann-Whitney Test U = 1113.0, p = 0.773. We managed to screen and assess two groups with comparable disability index. Even though there is a theoretical shared pathway between PD neurodegeneration and spirituality, we did not find any significant difference among PD and RA patients’ BMMRS scores.  

PD patients maintain their faith and spirituality in spite of the disease severity while having high SDS scores. This study indirectly outlined that PD patient were “less” religious/spiritual than healthy individuals because of motor and non-motor disabilities rather than the presumed shared neuronal circuit degeneration. Hence, large-scale studies are needed to question the theory which suggests faith and spirituality are affected by degeneration of basal ganglia pathway.

Authors/Disclosures
Dawit K. Worku, MD
PRESENTER
No disclosure on file
No disclosure on file
No disclosure on file