Risk factors for impulse control disorders and related behaviors in Parkinson’s disease: secondary analyses of the ICARUS study

Objective: Impulse control disorders and related behaviors (ICDs) are common in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), yet incidence and predictive factors are not fully understood. We examined the epidemiology of ICDs in PD through secondary and post-hoc analyses of data from the ICARUS (SP0990) study, which enrolled >1000 patients. Methods: Using a modified-Minnesota Impulsive Disorders Interview (mMIDI), ICD incidence was calculated for patients who were ICD-negative at baseline but ICD-positive at year 1, and year 1 and/or 2 (cumulative 2-year ICD incidence). The proportion of “new cases” (ICD-negative at baseline, but ICD-positive at year 1 or 2), and “remitters” (ICD-positive at baseline but ICD-negative at year 1 or 2) was also calculated for the whole ICARUS population. Results: Among 709 patients ICD-negative at baseline, 97 screened ICD-positive (13.7%) at year 1. Among 712 patients who were ICD-negative at baseline, 147 were ICD-positive at ≥1 post-baseline visit (20.6%). Among patients who were ICD-negative at baseline who subsequently experienced an ICD, a higher proportion were male or smokers, younger at baseline, younger at disease/symptom onset, and had longer disease duration. Among the whole population, a similar proportion were “new cases” at years 1 (9.7%) and 2 (8.6%) versus the previous visit. The proportion of “remitters” was slightly higher at year 2 (11.0%) than 1 (9.1%) versus previous visit. Conclusions: The proportion of ICD-remitters approximately matched/exceeded new cases, suggesting patients with ICD are in a state of flux. Current data allow for a conservative estimate of 2-year ICD incidence in ICARUS of ∼21% of patients, not accounting for transient new ICD cases between visits.