Phenomenology and gender characteristics of hobbyism and punding in Parkinson’s disease: A self-report study

Objectives

Dopamine replacement therapy administered to alleviate motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD) has been linked to a range of impulsive and compulsive behaviors (ICBs). The objective of the current study is to describe the phenomenology and delineate gender characteristics of hobbyism and punding in PD based on self-report.

Materials and methods

We applied two self-report questionnaires. A clinical and demographic questionnaire assessing motor symptomatology and the short-version of the Questionnaire for impulsive-compulsive behaviors in PD assessing symptoms of current and past ICBs in PD.

Results

Results suggest that hobbyism and punding are very common among Danish patients with PD with 27.5% of patients reporting symptoms hereof in the current sample. Furthermore, findings indicate that male and female patients engage differently in hobbyism and punding showing different preferences for specific compulsive activities. In addition, hobbyism and punding appear to be very time consuming with up to 10.6% of patients spending more than five hours each day on these behaviors. We found no significant gender differences in time consumption nor in the subjective experience of being pre-occupied with and feeling loss of control over the behavior. However, unlike men only very few female patients (12.1%) addressed a healthcare professional about ICB symptoms overall, and none when considering hobbyism and punding alone. Finally, findings suggest that age at PD onset and advanced motor symptomatology are significantly associated with hobbyism and punding, respectively, in both male and female patients with PD, whereas non-cardinal motor symptoms, only predict ICBs in male patients.

Conclusions

Findings may have important clinical implications in early identification of ICBs in male and female patients with PD by emphasizing the need for healthcare professionals to explicitly ask patients about behavioral alterations and taking motor symptomatology into account when screening for ICBs in PD.