Apathy and striatal dopamine transporter levels in de-novo, untreated Parkinson's disease patients

摘要

Introduction: Apathy is a neuropsychiatric symptom in Parkinson's Disease (PD) which has a negative impact on quality of life and might be related in part to damage of presynaptic dopaminergic system. Little is known about relationship between striatal dopamine levels and apathy in PD patients without dementia and/or depression. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between "pure apathy" and striatal dopamine uptake in untreated, drug-naive PD patients without clinically significant dementia and/or depression.