Abstract:Objective To study the neuropsychological symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with cognitive impairment so as to provide scientific basis for prevention and treatment of Parkinson's disease. Methods Totally 330 patients were followed up. The patients were divided into three groups. The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, the Apathy Evaluation Scale, the simple version of the Geriatric Depression Scale and the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) were evaluated. All analyses were computed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17.0 and Excel version 2007 statistical software. Results Among the 330 cases, 128 patients did not have cognitive impairment (PD-NC), 96 cases of patients had mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI), and 106 cases had dementia (PD-D). The PD-NC, PD-MCI and PD-D groups had significant differences in education degree (P < 0.01). After adjusting for other confounding factors, multivariate logistic regression revealed high education level was the independent protective factor for cognitive impairment in PD (P = 0.003); while the age of onset, long course of disease, indifference and high NPI scores were the independent risk factors for cognitive impairment in PD (P < 0.05). Depression and indifference symptoms gradually increased from the PD-NC group, PD-MCI group to PD-D group. The significantly different neuropsychiatric symptoms were dysthymia and apathy. The core spirit symptoms were common in cognitive impairment in PD, which accounted for 9.38% in the PD-NC group, 11.46% in the PD-MCI group and 46.22% in the PD-D group. Conclusions Education serves as a protective factor for cognitive impairment in PD, which is consistent with previous studies. Abnormal behavioral and psychological symptoms in non-demented PD patients and PD-D are very common. With the aggravation of cognitive impairment in PD, mental and behavioral abnormalities are more common, which mainly include sleep disorders and abnormalities of nocturnal behavior, hallucinations, anxiety; but euphoria and disinhibition are relatively rare.