Symptom dimensions of anxiety in Parkinson’s disease: Replication study in a neuropsychiatric patient population

ABSTRACT: Highlights • We replicated a previous factor analysis on anxiety in PD.• The BAI consists of one psychological and several somatic subscales in PD.• The affective subscale of the BAI has equal predictive power in diagnosing anxiety.• Anxiety symptoms need to be evaluated in the context of other PD symptoms.

Introduction

Anxiety disorders occur in approximately one third of people with Parkinson’s disease (PD), and have a major impact on patient and caregiver wellbeing. In order to better understand and diagnose anxiety in PD patients, we investigated the generalizability of the results of a previous factor analysis on anxiety symptoms to a sample of PD patients with neuropsychiatric symptoms.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, anxiety symptoms were measured with the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) in 123 PD patients who were referred for neuropsychiatric diagnostics and treatment. Subscales of anxiety were analyzed through principal component analysis of BAI items. The associations between BAI subscales and symptoms of motor and cognitive function and depression were assessed through regression analyses.

Results

Similar to the previous factor analysis, we found one psychological (affective) and four somatic subscales of anxiety in the BAI. The affective subscale was the principal component explaining 35.9% of the variance. The scores on the total BAI and the affective subscale were significantly associated with depressive symptoms. In a post-hoc analysis, the affective subscale had equal power as compared to the total BAI in predicting whether or not participants were diagnosed with an anxiety disorder after psychiatric evaluation.

Conclusion

In this study, we replicated our previous findings of one affective and multiple somatic subscales of the BAI. The 7-item affective subscale of the BAI shows potential as a screening tool for non-episodic anxiety in PD. However, in clinical practice, we recommend evaluating anxiety symptoms in the context of other PD symptoms, including motor, autonomic, and other (neuro)psychiatric symptoms.

SUBMITTER: Rutten S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8605274 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature