Discourse Comprehension in Huntington’s and Parkinson’s Diseases

This study compared the discourse comprehension abilities of patients with Huntington’s disease (HD) or Parkinson’s disease (PD) to those of age-matched control participants with no brain damage. Results from the Discourse Comprehension Test (Brookshire & Nicholas, 1993) indicated that patients with HD and PD, even those with mild or no dementia, are at risk for discourse comprehension difficulties: Although the patients with HD and PD adequately perceived main information, they had problems processing detailed or implied information. Correlational findings suggested a strong relationship between HD and PD patients’ general cognitive decline and their discourse comprehension difficulties. Suggestions are provided for assessing and treating the discourse comprehension abilities of patients with HD and PD.