PO032 Parkinson’s disease dementia: getting it less wrong more often

Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD) is common. It affects up to 80% of Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients over 20 years and can cause hallucinations, psychosis, care-giver strain, early nursing home admission, and prolonged hospital admissions. Making the correct diagnosis early could avoid some of these complications although this can be challenging in a busy neurology clinic. An audit was undertaken to determine whether care for patients with PDD was compliant with aspects of the National Dementia Strategy and NICE quality standards relating to diagnosis. 67 cases of likely PDD were identified and audited, using a retrospective case note review, in three cycles between 2013 and 2016. During this time, a specialised clinic for patients with complex PD, including PDD, was developed. All patients in the most recent cycle had a documented diagnosis of PDD that met the Movement Disorder Society task force diagnostic criteria compared to 81% in the initial cycle and 94.7% of patients had a documented discussion of the diagnosis of PDD compared to 68% initially. All patients in the most recent cycle had been offered an AChE-I compared to 45% in the initial cycle. This audit showed improvement in diagnosis of PDD, paving the way for better care.