Study Finds Link Between Anxiety and Parkinson’s Risk Among 50-Plus

We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

Depression, disturbed sleep, and fatigue can be contributing factors, according to a recent study in the British Journal of General Practice.

People who suffer from anxiety could face a higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease (PD), with factors like depression, disturbed sleep, and fatigue contributing to the risk, according to a recent study.

The peer-reviewed study, published in the July issue of the British Journal of General Practice, investigated the frequency of Parkinson’s among people with anxiety aged 50 years and above.

Researchers analyzed data from 109,435 patients with anxiety and compared them with 878,256 individuals who were not diagnosed with anxiety. “The risk of developing PD was at least doubled in people with anxiety compared with those without,” the paper said.

This discrepancy in risk remained even after adjusting for multiple factors including age, severe mental illness, dementia, head trauma, and social deprivation. The median time to diagnose Parkinson’s after the first recorded anxiety episode was 4.9 years.

People without anxiety were found to have survived for a longer period without developing a Parkinson’s event, the study said.

Researchers identified the following symptoms as risk factors that could lead to Parkinson’s in individuals with anxiety issues—depression, sleep disturbances, fatigue, cognitive impairment, hypotension, tremor, rigidity, balance impairment, and constipation.

Co-lead author Dr. Juan Bazo Avarez pointed out that Parkinson’s was the second most common neurodegenerative condition in the world and is estimated to affect more than 14 million people by 2040.

“Anxiety is known to be a feature of the early stages of Parkinson’s disease,” he said.

“By understanding that anxiety and the mentioned features are linked to a higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease over the age of 50, we hope that we may be able to detect the condition earlier and help patients get the treatment they need.”

The study was funded by the European Union AND-PD grant, National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), Three Research Schools Mental Health Program, and the Alzheimer’s Society Clinical Training Fellowship program. The authors of the study declared no competing interests.

In addition to anxiety, loneliness can be a risk factor for Parkinson’s, as detailed in an October 2023 study. Researchers looked at nearly half a million people, following them up for 15 years.

In total, 2,822 individuals developed the illness during this period, with those who reported being lonely having a higher risk of the disease. In the first five years of the follow-up, loneliness was not associated with Parkinson’s risk. The link was only evident in the following 10 years.

The study “adds evidence on the detrimental health impact of loneliness and supports recent calls for the protective and healing effects of personally meaningful social connection,” it said.

New Breakthroughs

The study comes as newer detection and mitigation strategies for Parkinson’s have emerged over the past year.

A new skin biopsy test for the illness was revealed in a March 2024 study. Diagnosing Parkinson’s usually is a lengthy process, involving a thorough review of a person’s history, checking their symptoms, and conducting a physical examination that can include MRI brain scans, blood tests, and dopamine transporter scans.

The new test involves taking a few millimeters of skin from the neck, knee, and ankle and testing it for a protein called phosphorylated alpha-synuclein that is associated with Parkinson’s.

In a May study, researchers from Japan uncovered a link between Parkinson’s and a lack of Vitamin B that could help in managing the condition.

A deficiency of Vitamin B could compromise the intestinal barrier that’s supposed to prevent toxins from getting into the bloodstream, thereby contributing to Parkinson’s, the researchers said.

Toxins in the bloodstream can cause inflammation of the nervous system, which is linked to neurodegenerative diseases.

Lead author of the study Hiroshi Nishiwaki said that Vitamin B supplementation potentially can slow down the progression of Parkinson’s and relieve symptoms.

According to the Parkinson’s Foundation, almost a million people in the United States are living with the disease, with the number projected to jump to 1.2 million by the end of this decade. Nearly 90,000 new Parkinson’s diagnoses are made annually in the country.

An estimated 4 percent of people with the illness are diagnosed before 50 years of age. Men are 1.5 times more likely to suffer from the condition than women.

Parkinson’s is estimated to cost almost $52 billion per year in the United States. A person may have to pay an average of $2,500 a year for medications. The cost can rise to $100,000 in cases of a therapeutic surgery.