Dementia and treatment with L‐dopa in Parkinson's disease

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Abstract
We compared the neuropsychological performance of patients with Parkinson's disease who were young at onset of the disease (mean age, 41.4 years) and had received prolonged L‐dopa treatment (mean, 52.1 months) with nontreated patients of the same age. A similar comparison was made for patients who were older at onset of the disease (mean, 62.1 years). There were no significant differences in cognitive and memory functions between the L‐Dopa‐treated and untreated young patients, whereas the L‐Dopa‐treated patients in the older age group performed more poorly than untreated patients in some memory tests (Wechsler Memory Scale I: logical and visula) and cognitive functions (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale: similarities, block design, and cognitive flexibility). Treatment duration, disease duration, and mean L‐Dopa dose were comparable for the two age groups. After linear effects of age and disease duration had been eliminated, the duration of L‐Dopa treatment did not correlate with the cognitive vaiables studied. These observations suggest that treatment with L‐Dopa may not be the cause of cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease.