Comparison of quality of life in patients with progressive supranucelar palsy and Parkinson’s disease and its impact on the caregiver

Abstract

Objective: tod escribe and compare the quality of life of patients and caregiver burden in patients with a diagnosis of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and Parkinson disease (PD) in similar stages of severity of parkinsonism. Material and methods: a cross-sectional case-control study with patients diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy and Parkinson’s disease patients was carried out. The scale of quality of life European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions (EQ-5D) and the EQ-VAS were applied to assess the quality of life of patients. The Zarit questionnaire was used to assess the caregiver burden. Results: a total of 13 patients with a diagnosis of probable PSP and 13 patients diagnosed with PD matched for gender and disease severity based on the Hoehn and Yahr were included. The EQ-VAS score was higher in PD patients compared to those with PSP (83.1% vs 61.5%, p = 0.03). The frequency of the caregiver burden was low in both groups. An 84.6% of the caregivers of PD patients did not show any burden, compared with 76.9% of the caregivers of patients with PSP. Conclusions: the quality of life is lower in patients with PSP compared to PD subjects in similar stages of motor severity. Perceived caregiver burden in both cases is low.