Study finds Parkinson’s risk doubles in people with anxiety
He The risk of developing Parkinson’s disease is at least twice as high in people with anxiety than those who do not suffer from it, according to a new study conducted by scientists at University College London (UK).
A study published in the British Journal of General Practice looked at whether there was a link between people over 50 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 looked for signs of Parkinson’s disease, such as sleep problems, depression, tremors and balance problems.– from the date of their anxiety diagnosis to one year before the date of Parkinson’s diagnosis, to help them understand the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease in each group over time and what their risk factors may be.
The team took care to adjust the results to take into account age, gender, social deprivation, lifestyle factors, serious mental illness, head injury and dementiawhich may affect the likelihood of developing the disease in people with anxiety.
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 and is estimated to affect 14.2 million people in 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.
By understanding that anxiety and the aforementioned 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 disease is the fastest growing neurodegenerative disease in the world and currently It affects almost 10 million people around the planet..
It is a progressive disease caused by 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 Center Göttingen (Germany) recently developed a simple blood test that uses artificial intelligence to predict Parkinson’s disease 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.