Rhinorrhea is increased in Parkinson's disease

We have observed that rhinorrhea is increased in people with Parkinson's disease (PD) but only a single publication supports this. We performed two separate case control studies to assess the prevalence of rhinorrhea in PD in Rhode Island. One was cross-sectional and the other in consecutive de novo patients. We further questioned subjects as to whether rhinorrhea might be associated with olfactory impairment. We found that rhinorrhea affects about half of PD patients in Rhode Island, is an early feature, being present at the time of presentation, was significantly more common than in controls and was associated with self-perceived reduced olfaction. These observations confirm that rhinorrhea is a common problem and raise the questions as to whether some olfactory impairment found in PD could be confounded by rhinorrhea and also whether rhinorrea may be a premotor symptom. (C) 2007 Movement Disorder Society.