Several Risk Factors Predict Depression in Patients With Parkinson Disease

Probable REM sleep behavior disorder, impairment in daily activities, and hyposmia can be considered longitudinal predictors of sustained depressive symptoms in patients with Parkinson disease (PD), suggests a study published in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences.

“We found in our analyses that the majority of baseline nondepressed patients would develop sustained depressive symptoms at least once during the course of the study,” reported corresponding author Hirotaka Iwaki, MD, PhD, of the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health, and coauthors.

The study included 874 patients with PD from two cohorts with median follow-up times of 7 years and 3 years. Researchers were interested in identifying factors at baseline that increased the risk of a patient without depression developing depressive symptoms that lasted for at least 1 year. The Cox regression model used by investigators adjusted for antidepressant use and cognitive impairment. Random-effects meta-analysis identified common predictors between the cohorts.

The study identified several baseline risk factors for depression development in patients in either cohort: probable REM sleep behavior disorder, age, duration of diagnosis, impairment in daily activities, mild constipation, and antidepressant use. Cox regression analysis found probable REM sleep behavior disorder, impairment in daily activities, and hyposmia to be associated with sustained depressive symptoms over time.

A link between mild constipation and depressive symptoms, meanwhile, varied between cohorts.

“We identified several potential risk factors to aid physicians in the early detection of depression in PD patients,” researchers wrote. “Our findings also underline the importance of adjusting for multiple covariates when analyzing risk factors for depression.”

Reference:
Antar T, Morris HR, Faghri F, et al. Longitudinal risk factors for developing depressive symptoms in Parkinson's disease. Journal of the Neurological Sciences. 2021;429:117615. doi:10.1016/j.jns.2021.117615