Retrospective Survey of Prodromal Symptoms in Dementia with Lewy Bodies: Comparison with Alzheimer's Disease

Background: Non-motor symptoms are recognized to enable the early detection of Parkinson's disease (PD). It remains unknown when those symptoms appear in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). Method: We investigated the prevalence of 15 non-motor symptoms of PD at the onset of memory loss based on a standardized worksheet in 34 patients with DLB, 32 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 30 normal controls. Results: DLB patients exhibited a significantly higher prevalence of olfactory dysfunction, constipation, increased saliva and signs of rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder at the onset of memory loss than AD patients and normal controls. Conclusions: Paying attention to non-motor symptoms of PD may help DLB diagnosis in the early stage, especially in terms of its differentiation from AD. Copyright (C) 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel