Recent research has revealed that people diagnosed with depression are three times more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease later on in life. Results of the study by researchers from Maastricht University in the Netherlands revealed that 1.4% of people diagnosed with depression between 1975 and 1990 had developed the neurodegenerative disease by 2000, compared with just 0.4% of a control group. Research has shown that Parkinson’s patients may have low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin before they start to experience the motor symptoms characteristic of the disease. Low serotonin levels are also seen in people suffering from depression, thus study leader Dr Marjan van den Akker and her colleagues suspect that in some cases depression may actually be a symptom of the first stages of Parkinson’s disease.
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Neurology 2002; 58:1501-1504
