A new analysis suggests that people over 50 with anxiety may be up to twice as likely to develop Parkinson’s disease compared to their peers without anxiety. The study, published in the British Journal of General Practice, examined primary care data from the United Kingdom. Researchers looked at a group of 109,435 individuals aged 50 and older who were diagnosed with their first episode of anxiety between 2008 and 2018. They compared this group with a control group of 987,691 people without anxiety.
Among those in the study, 331 patients with anxiety went on to develop Parkinson’s disease over the course of a decade. On average, patients who developed Parkinson’s did so 4.9 years after their initial anxiety diagnosis. Even after adjusting for various factors such as age, lifestyle, and mental illness, individuals with anxiety were still twice as likely to develop Parkinson’s compared to those without anxiety.
The study also found that those who developed Parkinson’s were more likely to be male and in higher socioeconomic groups. Additionally, factors like depression, sleep disturbances, fatigue, cognitive impairment, low blood pressure, tremor, rigidity, balance impairment, constipation, as well as dizziness, shoulder pain, and urinary and erectile problems were associated with the likelihood of developing Parkinson’s disease.
Further research focusing on anxiety is warranted to better understand early indicators of Parkinson’s disease. Anette Schrag, a professor of clinical neurosciences at UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology and the study’s co-leader, emphasized the need for more research to help improve the treatment of Parkinson’s disease in its early stages.
According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder in the United States, affecting up to 1 million Americans. While the disease is typically diagnosed in individuals 60 and older, there is a percentage of those diagnosed before age 50. Early signs of Parkinson’s can often be overlooked, highlighting the importance of further research and understanding of the disease.