Iranian Journal of Psychiatry (Mar 2013)
Verbal Fluency Performance in Patients with Non-demented Parkinson's Disease.
Abstract
While Parkinson's disease (PD) has traditionally been defined by motor symptoms, many researches have indicated that mild cognitive impairment is common in non-demented PD patients. The purpose of this study was to compare verbal fluency performance in non-demented Parkinson's disease patients with healthy controls.In this cross-sectional study thirty non-demented Parkinson's disease patients and 30 healthy controls, matched by age, gender and education, were compared on verbal fluency performance. Verbal fluency was studied with a Phonemic Fluency task using the letters F, A, and S, a semantic fluency task using the categories animals and fruits. The independent t-test was used for data analysis.Overall, participants generated more words in the semantic fluency task than in the phonemic fluency task. Results revealed significant differences between patients and controls in semantic fluency task (p