Shalenko O. Clinical-neurophysiological analysis on how the non-motor symptoms affect the course of Parkinson’s disease and the possibilities of pathogenetic therapy of the middle-aged and elderly patients

The author of this dissertation aimed to study the non-motor symptoms (NMS) in the middle-aged and elderly patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and how they affect their life quality. The severity and the qualitative analysis of NMS were evaluated using the self-evaluation scales NMSS and WBM-PD. The cognitive dysfunction\impairment was evaluated as the most important non-motor functions having a negative influence on patient’s life quality. The author performed a comparison of the indexes of amplitude-time characteristics of the cognitive induced potentials (ERP) with clinical manifestations of different cognitive status level among the middle aged and elderly patients with PD. As a result, the ERP parameters displayed changes depending on the level of each cognitive function decline in the two study groups. The medication course with a group of the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, rivastigmine, among patients with PD and cognitive disorders improved their cognitive functions, increased their motor activity, extended the level of their social-household activities and independence and contributed to the reorganization of functional brain activity that supported realization of cognitive functions of the brain. The reorganizational structure of cognitive ERP under effect of rivastigmine has displayed the amplitude and time changes, certain hemispheric peculiarities and objectively reflected the clinical manifestations of the severity of cognitive impairment based on the neurodynamic and regulatory disorders.