OBJECTIVE

The purpose of the study was to study the frequency of complaints of salivation in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) at an outpatient appointment.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

89 patients with PD participated in the survey (average age 68.67±8.14 years; average disease duration — 5.35±3.54 yrs). The presence and severity of sialorrhea were assessed according to the original questionnaire.

RESULTS

It was shown that only 15.7% of patients with PD complained of drooling on their own; 84.3% of patients did not present active complaints of drooling. Moreover, more than half of them (53.3%) noted complaints of increased salivation upon further active questioning. A survey about the reasons why patients did not complain of drooling showed that almost half of the respondents (45%) believed that the severity of the motor symptoms of the disease was more significant than drooling, 32.5% did not think that this symptom could be associated with Parkinson’s disease, 15% did not think that this symptom could be addressed to a neurologist, 7.5% did not think that this symptom could and should be treated.

CONCLUSION

Barriers to the treatment of sialorrhea in patients are the low awareness of neurologists and patients themselves about treatment options. The use of incobotulinumtoxinA (Xeomin) for the treatment of sialorrhea is currently the first-line treatment method with the highest class of evidence.