Somatosensory symptoms in unmedicated de novo patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative condition presenting with motor and non-motor symptoms including somatosensory disturbances. As neuropathic syndromes in advanced PD patients are supposed to be due to antiparkinsonian medication, we studied the presence of somatosensory symptoms and peripheral nerve function in drug naïve patients with PD as well as age-matched healthy controls. Somatosensory symptoms and signs were investigated in 39 de novo PD patients and 32 age-matched healthy controls using the modified Toronto Clinical Neuropathy Scale. To elucidate potential underlying mechanisms, peripheral nerve function was analyzed with sensory and motor neurography. About two thirds of de novo diagnosed levodopa naïve PD patients (66.7 %) reported somatosensory symptoms in comparison to one third of the control group (31.2 %) (p = 0.003). The presence of PD (p = 0.017) was a predictive factor for the occurrence of somatosensory symptoms among all participants. In contrast to the significantly higher frequency of somatosensory symptoms in patients with PD compared to controls, neurographically based peripheral nerve function did not differ between the groups. Our results indicate that somatosensory symptoms are a PD feature, which can be found when diagnosed first and independently of dopaminergic treatment. As the electrophysiologically determined peripheral nerve function was not different from that obtained in the control group, somatosensory symptoms are inherent in early PD and may be, at least partially, of central origin.