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Researchers at Taipei Veterans Hospital in Taiwan analyzed medical records of 4,634 people with depression and 18,544 individuals who were free of depression for at least 10 years to investigate the association between depression and Parkinson's disease. Their results showed that people with depression were three times more likely to develop Parkinson's than were those without depression. Among the cohort with depression, individuals over age 65 and those with treatment-resistant depression showed the greatest risk for Parkinson’s disease onset.
"Many questions remain, including whether depression is an early symptom of Parkinson's disease rather than an independent risk factor for the disease," said Albert Yang, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of psychiatry and the study's lead author. Yang advised physicians who treat depressed elderly patients or patients with treatment-resistant depression that “it may be beneficial to screen for any neurological disease, as depression may be a red flag.”
To read more about research on the physiological impact of clinical depression, see the Psychiatric News articles “Vision Loss and Depression: Which Came First?” and "Depression, Cardiovascular Link Found in Young Adults."
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