Depression may indicate early Parkinson's disease

[mschild <mmoo@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

nothing terribly new!


NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Results of a new study provide more evidence that
depressive symptoms are an early feature of Parkinson's disease, preceding the
characteristic movement problems seen Parkinson's such as tremor and rigid
muscles.
In the study, researchers found that starting antidepressant therapy was
associated with a twofold increased risk of developing Parkinson's disease in
the next 2 years.
Although several reports have shown a link between depressive symptoms and
Parkinson's disease, it was unclear whether one caused the other or if both
may arise from some common mechanism, Dr. A. Alonso and colleagues note in
their report.
To look into these questions, they matched 999 patients with Parkinson's
disease identified through records from 1995 to 2001 to 6261 "control"
subjects. Initiation of antidepressant therapy was used as a marker for
depressive symptoms.
Overall, subjects who began antidepressant therapy were 85 percent more likely
to develop Parkinson's disease than were non-initiators, Alonso, from the
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and colleagues note.
Further analysis showed that the association was strongest in the 2 years
after starting antidepressant therapy, they report in the latest issue of the
Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry.
Based on their findings, Alonso and colleagues suggest that people with signs
of depression who start to develop movement problems "be promptly evaluated to
rule out a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease."
SOURCE: Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, June 2009.

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