Word-finding difficulties in Parkinson's disease: Complex verbal fluency, executive functions and other influencing factors.
Eli Hedman, Lena Hartelius, Charlotta Saldert
PMID 35142000WHAT IT FOUND
People with Parkinson's and word-finding complaints scored lower than controls on a complex fluency task, but standard tests missed the deficit.
Individual scores varied widely, and test performance did not match self-reported difficulties. Always ask about communication problems directly.
Key findings
01The Parkinson's group scored significantly lower than controls on the complex COSEF task, but not on standard phonemic or semantic fluency tests.
02When looking at individuals, only five of the seventeen participants with Parkinson's differed significantly from the control mean on the complex task, showing large variation within the group.
03Scores on the complex fluency task did not correlate with the participants' own reports of how much they struggled to find words in daily life.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study was very small, with only seventeen participants in the Parkinson's group, which limits the reliability of the findings. The participants were mostly in early stages of Parkinson's (Hoehn and Yahr stage 3 or lower), so results may not apply to those with more advanced disease. Depression was not screened for, and it is common in Parkinson's and can affect cognitive test performance. The time since the patient's last dose of Parkinson's medication was not recorded, which could have influenced test scores. Participants were tested in different environments (homes, offices), and visual cues in the room may have helped some people perform better on the object-naming task.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume the complex COSEF task is a better diagnostic tool for all patients. While the group average was lower, most individual patients did not differ significantly from controls, and the task failed to reflect the patients' own subjective reports of word-finding difficulty.