I'm Going to Take This Lying Down: Cognitive Changes in Patients with Parkinson Disease and Orthostatic Hypotension

Cognition worsens in these patients when they are sitting up. Is this also true for other patients with cognitive impairment?

Parkinson disease (PD) and other synucleinopathies have been associated with orthostatic hypotension (OH), which can be both asymptomatic and linked to cognitive impairment. In a systematic review, the relationship between OH and cognitive impairment in these disorders was potentially explained by the deposition of alpha-synuclein in both the brain and the peripheral nervous system, by the direct effect of OH on brain function, or by a synergistic effect (J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2016 Sep 9; [e-pub]). Now, researchers have directly examined the relationship in 37 patients with mild-to-moderate PD and no dementia (18 with OH and 19 without) and 18 non-PD controls.

Exclusions were severe dizziness or lightheadedness, tachycardia (>150 bea…

Reviewing Author

Jonathan Silver, MD

Disclosures

RoyaltiesTextbook of Traumatic Brain Injury, 2nd and 3rd editions

Editorial BoardsUpToDate; Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience

Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesNorth American Brain Injury Association (Board Member); National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (Chair of Data Monitoring Safety Board for study of donepezil on cognition after traumatic brain injury)

Jonathan Silver, MD

Disclosures

RoyaltiesTextbook of Traumatic Brain Injury, 2nd and 3rd editions

Editorial BoardsUpToDate; Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience

I'm Going to Take This Lying Down: Cognitive Changes in Patients with Parkinson Disease and Orthostatic Hypotension

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Reviewing Author