Parkinson’s risk doubles in people with anxiety
Risk of development Parkinson’s disease According to a new study by scientists at University College London (UK), people with anxiety have at least twice the level of anxiety as people without it.
The study, published in the journal British Journal of General Practiceexamined whether there was a link between people over 50 years of age who recently developed anxiety and a subsequent diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease.
The team used UK primary care data from 2008 to 2018 and looked at 109,435 patients who developed anxiety after the age of 50 and compared them with 878,256 controls who did not have anxiety.
They then tracked the presence of Parkinson’s disease features such as sleep problems, depression, tremors and balance problems from the date of anxiety diagnosis to a year before the date of Parkinson’s diagnosis to help them understand each group’s risk of developing Parkinson’s disease over time and what their risk factors might be.
The team took care to adjust the results for age, gender, social deprivation, lifestyle factors, serious mental illness, head injury and dementia, which may influence the likelihood of people with anxiety developing the condition.
Consequently, they found that the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease was doubled in people with anxiety compared to the control group.
They also confirmed that symptoms such as depression, sleep disturbances, fatigue, cognitive impairment, hypotension, tremor, rigidity, balance impairment and constipation are risk factors for developing Parkinson’s disease in people with anxiety.
Co-lead author Dr Juan Bazo Avares (UCL Epidemiology & Health) said Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide, with an estimated 14.2 million people expected to suffer by 2040.
“Anxiety is known to be a feature of early stages of Parkinson’s disease, but before our study, the estimated risk of developing Parkinson’s disease in people over 50 with new-onset anxiety was unknown,” he said.
Knowing that anxiety and the above characteristics are associated with an increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease after age 50, researchers hope to be able to detect the disease earlier and help patients get the treatment they need.
Parkinson’s is a rapidly growing neurodegenerative disease in the world and at present It affects nearly 10 million people worldwide.Aneta.
It is a progressive disease caused by the death of nerve cells in a part of the brain called the substantia nigra, which controls movement. These nerve cells die or are destroyed, losing the ability to produce an important chemical called dopamine due to the buildup of a protein called alpha-synuclein.
A team of researchers led by scientists from UCL and the University Medical Centre Göttingen in Germany have recently developed a simple blood test that uses artificial intelligence to predict Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before symptoms appear.
Co-senior author Professor Annette Schrag (UCL Queen Square Neuroscience Institute) said: “Anxiety has not been studied as well as other early signs of Parkinson’s disease.” So he calls for future research to investigate how early onset anxiety relates to other early symptoms and the underlying progression of early Parkinson’s disease.
“This could lead to better treatment of the disease at its earliest stages,” he said. The researchers suggest future studies could examine why people over 50 with new-onset anxiety are at higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease and whether the severity of their anxiety affects their outcome.