Parkinson's disease (PD) has a wide range of non-motor symptoms including; constipation, sleep disturbance, deficits in vision and olfaction, mood disorders and cardiac autonomic dysfunction. Several of these non-motor symptoms can manifest prior to the onset of motor symptoms. Recognizing these pre-motor symptoms may enable early diagnosis of PD. Currently, no single pre-motor symptom is able to predict the development of PD with 100% sensitivity or specificity. Ongoing studies in several independent at-risk cohorts should reveal the potential of combinations of pre-motor symptoms and multi-stage screening strategies to identify individuals at increased risk of PD. PD progression may be governed by a prion-like spread of a-syn throughout the nervous system. Identifying individuals at the earliest stage will likely be critical to preventing the pathological progression of PD, highlighting the relevance of pre-motor symptoms in the future treatment of the disease.
Keywords: Parkinson’s disease; alpha synuclein; autonomic dysfunction; constipation; depression; excessive daytime sleepiness; olfactory dysfunction; pre-motor; rem behaviour disorder.