Non-motor symptom scales

The Non-Motor Symptoms Questionnaire (NMSQuest)¹ was designed by a multi-disciplinary group of experts, including patient group representatives, for use as a screening tool for non-motor symptoms.³ It specifically focuses on non-motor symptoms in order to initiate further investigation.³ The NMSQuest is a valid instrument for use in the PD population, and has been used to study the spectrum of non-motor symptoms and their prevalence – showing that non-motor symptoms are very common across all stages of PD.³

The Non-Motor Symptom Scale (NMSS) was designed to address the problem, at the time, that there was no validated clinical tool to assess the progress of non-motor symptoms, or track their response to potential treatment.² The 30-item NMSS was developed as a quick (10–15 minutes), easy to administer scale of non-motor symptoms, where the patient with PD is scored for both severity and frequency.² When the NMSS was tested in patients with PD, its scores correlated with the severity of PD symptoms assessed using the Hoehn & Yahr scale, NMSQuest, and MDS-UPDRS Part I (which also measures non-motor symptoms) and, importantly, other health-related quality of life assessments.^2,4 Development of instruments of this kind, which specifically analyse non-motor symptoms, allows for the evidence-based treatment of the non-motor symptom complex of PD.²

References:
1.Martinez-Martin P, Schapira AHV, Stocchi F, et al. Prevalence of nonmotor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease in an international setting; study using nonmotor symptoms questionnaire in 545 patients. Mov Disord 2007; 22 (11): 1623–1629.

2.Chaudhuri KR, Martinez-Martin P, Brown RG, et al. The metric properties of a novel non-motor symptoms scale for Parkinson’s disease: results from an international pilot study. Mov Disord 2007; 22 (13): 1901–1911.

3.Chaudhuri KR, Martinez-Martin P, Schapira AHV, et al. International multicentre pilot study of the first comprehensive self-completed non motor symptoms questionnaire for Parkinson’s disease: the NMSQuest study. Mov Disord 2006; 21 (7): 916 –923.

4.Martinez-Martin P, Chaudhuri KR, Rojo-Abuin JM, et al. Assessing the non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease: MDS-UPDRS and NMS Scale. Eur J Neurol 2015; 22: 37–43.