Lack of Accurate Self-appraisal is Equally Likely in MCI from Parkinson's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease.

BACKGROUND

How accurate are mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients in assessing their cognitive and functional deficit is often unclear to the clinician. The accuracy of patient self-appraisal in Parkinson's disease-MCI (PD-MCI) has received less attention than amnestic MCI (a-MCI) often associated with Alzheimer's disease. We evaluated if PD-MCI patients demonstrate accurate self-appraisal of their cognitive deficits compared to patients with amnestic a-MCI or non-amnestic MCI (na-MCI).

METHODS

This cross-sectional cohort study included, 30 PD-MCI, 33 a-MCI, and 17 na-MCI patients. Self-appraisal was assessed by comparing responses of caregivers and patients on a validated self-rating questionnaire of cognitive and functional impairments. All patients completed a full neuropsychological evaluation and depression screening measure. Univariate ANOVA, regression, and correlational analyses were employed to identify group differences in self-appraisal scores and relationships between cognitive and functional impairment, depression measures, and self-appraisal scores.

RESULTS

Self-appraisal scores for PD-MCI did not differ significantly from a-MCI and na-MCI. In the PD-MCI group, higher depression scores were associated with lower self-appraisal scores (i.e, patients assessed cognition as worse than caregivers). In a stepwise regression model with self-appraisal scores as the dependent variable, only the depression score was significant predictor among PD-MCI and accounted for 50% of the variance.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that impaired patient self-appraisal is equally likely to occur in PD-MCI as in a-MCI and na-MCI patients. Among PD-MCI, depression was the strongest predictor of impaired patient self-appraisal. Impaired insight into cognitive impairment and depression should be considered in both care and research with PD patients.