Dementia-Associated Compulsive Singing (DACS): Presentation of Unpublished Clinical Cases Miniseries

Roberto De Masi, Stefania Orlando () and Maria Carmela Costa
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Roberto De Masi: Complex Operative Unit of Neurology, “F. Ferrari” Hospital, Casarano, 73042 Lecce, Italy
Stefania Orlando: Laboratory of Neuroproteomics, Multiple Sclerosis Centre, “F. Ferrari” Hospital, Casarano, 73042 Lecce, Italy
Maria Carmela Costa: Complex Operative Unit of Ophthalmology, “V. Fazzi” Hospital, 73100 Lecce, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 17, 1-9

Abstract: Dementia-associated compulsive singing (DACS) is a neurotransmettitorial-based behavioral disturbance, characterized by an unabating melodic expression, occurring in patients that suffer from evolved dementia. Previously described only as a “punding” aspect of the dopamine dysregulation syndrome (DDS) in the Parkinson’s disease (PD), compulsive singing has now been described, for the first time, in four non-PD patients effectively treated with Haloperidol or Quetiapine. Unlike the DDS-associated conditions, in our cases DACS is not pharmacologically induced, being that all patients were L-dopa-free. We detected a diffuse hyperintensity of the white matter and brain atrophy, with insular shrinkage as well as ventricular system and/or sub-arachnoid space enlargement in our DACS patients. Furthermore, similarly to the other behavioral symptoms of dementia, DACS also seems to be correlated to the degree of cognitive and functional impairment, rather than its subtype. In conclusion, DACS is a non-cognitive, unpublished clinical aspect of evolved dementia, which is interesting due to the involvement of the extra-nigral dopaminergic system, resulting in an unabating altered behavior, but also to the enrichment of our knowledge in the involutional diseases of the central nervous system and their physiopathological manifestations.

Keywords: L-dopa; punding; compulsive singing; dementia; dopaminergic circuit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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