Depression may be linked to Parkinson's disease, long-term Swedish study finds

COURTESY NYU LANGONE MEDICAL CENTER

Dr. Alessandro Di Rocco, director of the NYU Langone Parkinson’s & Movement Disorders Center

Wednesday, May 20, 2015, 4:00 PM

Depression may be an early indicator or a risk factor of Parkinson’s disease, a long-term new Swedish study has found.

Researchers discovered 1.1% of people suffering from depression developed Parkinson’s, while 0.4% of those who did not have depression developed the progressive nervous system disorder.

The 26-year study of more than 400,000 Swedes over 50 was published Wednesday in the medical journal Neurology.

Those with more serious cases of depression were more likely to develop Parkinson’s — people who were hospitalized five or more times were 40% more likely to develop the disease than those who had been hospitalized only once.

While the vast majority — 98.9% — of people with depression did not develop Parkinson’s, the study showed a strong link between the two conditions, experts said.

“This observation has been made before, but it has never been made so powerfully. This is really an important study,” said Dr. Alessandro Di Rocco, director of the NYU Langone Parkinson's & Movement Disorders Center.

Depression may be an early indicator or a risk factor of Parkinson’s disease, a long-term new Swedish study has found.

Rocco said that along with the physical impact of Parkinson’s — such as tremors and loss of motor control — the disease causes changes in hormones and neurotransmitters in the brain, like dopamine and serotonin, which can trigger depression.

“This is part of the disease, it’s a manifestation of the chemical imbalance and can develop early on,” he said.

Actor Robin Williams, who committed suicide last summer, was privately dealing with the early stages of Parkinson’s as well as depression and anxiety.

Williams’ conditions may have been linked — and gone beyond a depressive reaction spurred by his upsetting diagnosis, Di Rocco said.

“The story may be a little different. The story may be that the depression was part of the Parkinson’s, biologically,” Di Rocco said.

epearson@nydailynews.com

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