Attributional Style and Parkinson's Disease (ParkAIHQ)

Attributional Style Assessment in Patients With Parkinson's Disease Treated With Deep Brain Stimulation

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder affecting 1-2% of the population over 65 years-old. In addition to the motor impairment characterized by resting tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity and postural instability, patients suffer with non-motor symptoms such as dysautonomia syndrome, sleep disturbances, depressive disorders, delusional disorders and cognitive disorders. Research and management of these non-motor symptoms is essential because these can be disabling and have a negative impact on the quality of life of patients. Among cognitive functions, social cognition is defined as the aspect that is dedicated to process social information for adaptive functioning. More specifically, it refers to an intricate set of higher-order neuropsychological domains that allow for adaptive behaviors in response to others. Four dimensions are usually included in this construct: theory of mind (ToM), emotion processing, social perception and social knowledge, and attributional style. Recently, different categories of social cognition have been studied in patients suffering from PD, such as the ToM or the recognition of facial emotions. Other aspects of social cognition that seem relevant in this population are still poorly studied; the attributional style is a cognitive bias defined as "the way we explain the causes of the positive or negative events that occur". Indeed, different causes can be attributed to an event, and this attribution is shared between oneself, others and other factors related to the situation. People with attribution bias may mistakenly attribute to one cause all the situations. For example, when an individual blame the others for an event, he may develop a feeling of hostility that may lead to maladaptive behavior such as aggression and thus affect his social functioning. The impact of PD treatments, particularly deep brain stimulation (DBS), on the ToM has been studied, showing a deficit after stimulation. No study has assessed the impact of therapeutics on the attributional style of PD patients. In this context, it seems relevant to evaluate the effect of deep brain stimulation on the attributional style in this population.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Parkinson's Disease
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Medical visit for specific questionnaires

Detailed Description

To explore attribution bias in PD population, the Ambiguous Intentions Hostility Questionnaire (AIHQ) developed by Combs (2007) will be used. The participants will be asked to read 15 vignettes, to imagine the scenario happening to her or him (e.g., ''You walk past a bunch of teenagers at a mall and you hear them start to laugh''), and to write down the reason why the other person (or persons) acted that way toward you. Two independent raters will subsequently code this written response for the purpose of computing a ''hostility index'' (described below). The participant will then rate, on Likert scales, whether the other person (or persons) performed the action on purpose (1 ''definitely no'' to 6 ''definitely yes''), how angry it would make them feel (1 ''not at all angry'' to 5 ''very angry''), and how much they would blame the other person (or persons) (1 ''not at all'' to 5 ''very much''). Finally, the participant will be asked to write down how she or he would respond to the situation, which will be later coded by two independent raters to compute an ''aggression index'' (described in Combs, 2007).

Socio-demographic data, subsyndromic symptoms of depression and anxiety, paranoia symptoms and cognitive functions will also be assessed to explore the confounding factors.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 32
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• France
  • Reims, France, 51092
    • CHU Reims

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion criteria :

• Diagnostic of Parkinson's disease by a neurologist
• Native French speaker
• Affiliated to social security
• Unmodified PD treatment for at least 2 weeks before the inclusion
• Over 18 years-old
• Accepting the study after reading the information note and signing the consentment form

Exclusion criteria :

• Diagnostic of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia
• Abuse and dependence on psychoactive substances according to the DSM V criteria
• Disabling sensory disorders
• Mental retardation or cognitive deterioration (e.g. dementia), with the incapacity to answer to the questionnaires.
• Patients under guardianship or curatorship

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Arm1; patients with Parkinson's disease treated with deep brain stimulation.	Other: Medical visit for specific questionnaires; Ambiguous Intentions Hostility Questionnaire (AIHQ) developed by Combs (2007)
Experimental: Arm2; patients with Parkinson's disease treated without deep brain stimulation.	Other: Medical visit for specific questionnaires; Ambiguous Intentions Hostility Questionnaire (AIHQ) developed by Combs (2007)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Attributional style	The Ambiguous Intentions Hostility Questionnaire (Combs et al., 2006) will be used to assess attributional style	Day 0

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
depression	The Hamilton Depression Rating scale (Hamilton, 1967 )will be used to assess presence of depression	Day 0

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: CHU de Reims

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Decombe L, Henry A, Decombe R, Tir M, Doe de Maindreville A, Galland Hairabedian L, Kaladjian A, Raucher-Chene D. "Accidental, really?" Attributional bias in patients with Parkinson's disease. Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2022 Feb;95:18-22. doi: 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2021.12.013. Epub 2021 Dec 23.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 22, 2018
• Primary Completion (Actual): July 7, 2018
• Study Completion (Actual): July 7, 2018

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 7, 2017
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 12, 2017
• First Posted (Actual): December 13, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): January 21, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 19, 2026
• Last Verified: October 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Synucleinopathies; Brain Diseases; Central Nervous System Diseases; Nervous System Diseases; Neurodegenerative Diseases; Movement Disorders; Parkinsonian Disorders; Basal Ganglia Diseases; Parkinson Disease
• Other Study ID Numbers: PO17112

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No