Screening for somatization symptoms in Parkinson’s disease

Objectives: Although screening for psychological factors in the presence of a neurodegenerative disorder may be considered a controversial issue by researchers and clinicians who conceive a disease by exclusively focusing on its “organic” symptoms when neglecting the psychosomatic viewpoint, our preliminary research is aimed at examining the prevalence of somatization in Parkinson’s Disease (PD). The specific research question we aimed to answer is the following: is somatization syndrome a highly prevalent symptom in parkinsonism? Design: the research protocol consists of a cross-sectional study. Methods: the total sample comprises 21 PD outpatients who were consecutively recruited at the University Hospital of Chieti, Italy. All participants, after being interviewed by a trained psychologist according to the Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research (DCPR), filled out anonymously the two following Kellner’s self-rating scales: the Symptom Questionnaire (SQ) and the Illness Attitude Scales (IAS). Results: Nearly half of patients (47.6% of the sample) fulfilled DCPR criteria for a diagnosis of Persistent Somatization (PS). When comparing patients with and without PS on SQ and IAS, those with PS reported higher scores on somatization, anxiety, depression, hypochondriac belief, bodily preoccupation, and effects of symptoms subscales (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Our findings showed that somatization is a highly prevalent comorbidity in PD, whose clinical relevance is further supported by its association with negative mental health outcomes such as depression, anxiety, and hypochondriasis. The major implication resulting from our data evidenced the importance of screening for somatization in PD in order to detect its consequence on PD clinical outcomes.