Lack of Awareness of Symptoms (Anosognosia) in PD: An Observational Study for People With Parkinson's

Overview

Anosognosia is a recognised condition for people with Parkinson's, and is the result of physiological damage on brain structure. Surgical Parkinson Disease Nurse Specialists have noticed that when reviewing the pre-surgery videos 12 months post-DBS, patients have forgotten and are shocked at how bad their symptoms were prior to surgery (personal communication), which may not be reflected in the change in QoL reported. This lack of awareness, while possibly helpful in everyday life, may lead to effective treatments looking ineffective, or the benefits in QoL of effective treatment appearing reduced. This confound may not only reduce the apparent effectiveness but also the related cost-effectiveness of treatment. As cost-effectiveness is determined by both size and longevity of an effect, current methods of capturing these data may be suboptimal.

The overarching aim of this project is to identify coping mechanisms and pathological lack of self-awareness and the impact they are likely to have on patient reported quality of life (QoL) outcome measures for a chronic condition. This will be an observational study, a case series of approx. 10 to 20 patients. These patients will be recruited over a 6 month period from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham and will be informed of the study during their routine pre-surgical visit. Patients will be eligible if they are about to undergo DBS at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. If the participant has a carer, who is also willing to participate, they may also join the study. Patients will be excluded if they are unable to complete questionnaires in English. Once recruited and following consent, a patient will complete a brief battery of questionnaires both self-reported and clinician rated prior to surgery and at their 6 month post op visit.

Conditions

Interventions

Eligibility

Locations (1)

Outcomes