Recognition and Treatment of Depressive Symptoms in Parkinson's Disease: the NPF Dataset

Depression is a major determinant of Health Related Quality of Life in PD, but there is limited data on physician recognition of depression and treatment efficacy. We used data obtained from the QII dataset of the National Parkinson's Foundation database to determine whether there was an association between depressive symptoms and utilization of antidepressants and/or mental health services (MHS) in a large cohort of PD patients. We found that prevalence of depressive symptoms remained high in the PD population despite improved physician recognition and treatment initiation.