Anxiety disorders in patients with Parkinson's disease

To study the prevalence and importance of anxiety disorders in patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease, the authors systematically evaluated 24 parkinsonian patients for the presence of DSM-III-R axis I syndromes. Nine subjects (38%) had a clinically significant current anxiety disorder. Severity of anxiety was not correlated with severity of parkinsonian symptoms, cumulative duration of L-dopa exposure, or current dose of L-dopa. These findings suggest that anxiety disorders should be considered in the medical evaluation and treatment of parkinsonian patients and that further attention should be paid to the role of the dopaminergic system in anxiety and phobic disorders.