Dupouy J, et al. – This pilot study was performed to develop a new tool to evaluate subjective cognitive complaint (SCC) specifically dedicated to Parkinson's disease (PD). SCC possibly appeared early in PD, in three cognitive domains (executive functions, language, and attention). In PD, visual analogue scale (VAS) could be a good way to detect SCC but needed to be validated.

• To develop an easy-to-use tool based on a VAS for 5 cognitive domains, the researchers set a group of experts in movements disorders and neurocognition: memory, executive functions, spatial orientation, attention, and language.
• It was used to evaluate SCC twice (at a one-month interval) in PD patients with disease duration of less than 5 years.
• They evaluated comprehensibility of the VAS.
• They assessed controls with the same VAS.
• Also, patients with PD underwent neuropsychological testing.

• By the 70 patients with PD, VAS was easily understandable.
• Significant SCC was found for the patients with PD vs controls in 3 cognitive domains: executive functions (1.7 ± 1.9 vs 0.8 ± 1.1; P < .001), language (2.3 ± 2.5 vs 1.0 ± 1.3, P < .001), and attention (2.1 ± 2.2 vs 1.2 ± 1.2; P < .01).
• Between the 2 evaluations of patients with PD, reproducibility was good.
• The researchers found no association between SCC and the results of neuropsychological testing.