Large Scale Study Assesses Statin Use and Incidence of Parkinson's Disease

AUG. 5, 2016

Protective effects for all statins, except lovastatin; evidence of dose-dependent trend

HealthDay News — For patients with diabetes, statin use is associated with reduced incidence of Parkinson's disease (PD), according to a study published online July 29 in the Annals of Neurology.

Kun-Der Lin, MD, from the Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital in Taiwan, and colleagues examined the correlation between statin dosage and risk of PD in patients with diabetes. Data were included for 50,432 patients with diabetes, of whom half were statin users.

The researchers found that the incidence of PD was lower in statin users versus non-users, with crude hazard ratios of PD incidence of 0.65 and 0.60 in female and male statin users, respectively, versus non-users. All statins except lovastatin had protective effects on PD incidence, and there was evidence of a significant dose-dependent trend.

"In Taiwanese diabetic patients, the risk of PD is lower in statin users than in non-users of statins. Statin users, except lovastatin users, are dose-dependently associated with a decreased incidence of PD compared with non-users of statins," the authors write. "This finding provides a new indication for statin beyond lipid control and cardiovascular events in diabetic patients."

http://www.empr.com/news/large-scale-study-assesses-statin-use-and-incidence-of-parkinsons-disease/article/514274/