Clinical picture of patients with Parkinson’s disease attending a regional core hospital in Ehime

Abstract

The number of Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients has been increasing year by year in Japan. However, there are few reports that comprehensively evaluate the symptoms and treatment details of PD patients. We collected and analyzed information on PD patients regularly visiting the Department of Neurology at Saiseikai Matsuyama Hospital as of the end of October 2020. We included 187 patients (83 males and 104 females) with a mean age of 73.6 years and a mean disease duration of 8.9 years. The disease duration was positively correlated with Hoehn & Yahr (HY) stage and the number of antiparkinsonian drugs. The L-dopa equivalent dose decreased after 20 years of disease duration or HY 5. Wearing-off phenomenon and L-dopa-induced dyskinesia were more common in patients with longer duration of disease and higher daily dose of L-dopa. This study provides an overview of the clinical picture of PD patients in a regional core hospital.