Depression and Parkinson’s | The big link

Depression and Parkinson’s | The big link

Depression may either be a very early symptom of PD, or a causal risk factor. New research published in Neurology shows direct association between depression and subsequent Parkinson’s disease.

Facts

• On average, Parkinson’s disease was diagnosed 4.5 years after the beginning of the study

• After 15-25 years, participants with depression were almost 50% more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease

• Severity of depression increases Parkinson’s risk even more

• No sibling link found for depression and Parkinson’s disease, not caused by the same genetic or early environmental factors

• Nationwide study cohort included 562,631 participants. 140,688 cases of depression, 421,718 not been diagnosed with depression, matched 1:3 using a nested case-control design to evaluate temporal aspects of study parameters

• Potential familial coaggregation of the 2 diagnoses was investigated in a subcohort of 540,811 sibling pairs.

• Follow-up up to 26 years.

 More

• All the facts about Parkinson’s Disease

• Link to study