A sample of 515 PD carefully matched patients, with ages
ranging from 40 to 80 years, was included in the study
(Table 1). Patients were classified as belonging to the
pramipexole group (n = 250), ropinirole group (n = 150),
or levodopa monotherapy group (n = 115). Patients in the
pramipexole group received a mean daily dose of
1.59 ± 0.7 mg/day, and those on ropinirole were taking
8.17 ± 5.3 mg/day.
Table 2 summarizes NPI total scores and item subscores
for the whole sample and medication group. Up to 89.3 %
exhibited at least one neuropsychiatric symptom. The total
composite NPI score for the whole sample was
18.7 ± 12.7. Depression and anxiety were the most common
symptoms, with a frequency of 71.5 % for each
symptom. Irritability (51.5 %) and apathy (49.1 %) were
also very common, while agitation (24.3 %), hallucinations