This study estimated the psychiatric morbidity of patients
with degenerative cerebellar diseases.

METHOD:

The study included a series of 31 patients with degenerative
cerebellar diseases, compared with 21 patients with Huntington's
disease and 29 neurologically healthy comparison subjects.
Comprehensive psychiatric evaluations, including the Structured
Clinical Interview for DSM-IV and psychopathology rating scales,
were administered.

RESULTS:

The overall rate of noncognitive psychiatric disorders was
77% in the patients with degenerative cerebellar diseases,
nearly identical to that in the patients with Huntington's
disease (81%) and about double that seen in the
neurologically healthy subjects (41%).

There were high rates of all mood disorders in both the
degenerative cerebellar diseases group (68%) and the
Huntington's disease group (43%); the rate in the degenerative
cerebellar diseases group was significantly higher than
that in the neurologically healthy subjects (31%).

The frequency of personality change in the three groups was
striking: change was present in 26% of the degenerative
cerebellar diseases patients, 48% of the Huntington's disease
patients, and none of the neurologically healthy comparison
subjects. A total of 19% of the degenerative cerebellar
diseases subjects and 71% of the Huntington's disease
subjects met DSM-IV criteria for either cognitive disorder
or dementia.

CONCLUSIONS:

The high rate of psychiatric and cognitive disorders
in the patients with degenerative cerebellar diseases
suggests that many, if not most, patients with
degenerative cerebellar diseases may benefit from
psychiatric interventions.

These results also support previous findings that
the cerebellum may have a role in modulating emotion
and cognition.

%

noncognitive psychiatric disorders

mood disorders

personality change

Source:

Psychopathology in Patients With Degenerative Cerebellar Diseases:

A Comparison to Huntington's Disease. Am J Psychiatry. 2002 Aug;159(8):1306-14. Leroi I, et al.