Study: Depression linked to increased risk of Parkinson's disease

In a new study published in the journal Neurology, Swedish researchers say that people with depression are more likely to one day develop Parkinson's disease.

"We saw this link between depression and Parkinson's disease over a time span of more than two decades, so depression may be a very early symptom of Parkinson's disease or a risk factor for the disease," Peter Nordström of Umea University said in a statement. Sweden has an extensive database on the health of its citizens, and the team at Umea University followed the entire population over age 50 by 2006. They found that more than 140,000 people were diagnosed with depression between 1987 and 2012, and compared them with similar people without depression.

The team discovered that 1,485 Swedes had been diagnosed with Parkinson's over that time period. Roughly 1 percent of those who had depression at one point developed Parkinson's, while only .4 percent of the population who never had depression were diagnosed with Parkinson's. James Beck of the U.S. Parkinson's Disease Foundation, who was not part of this study, told NBC News he thinks "the bigger message is that depression and Parkinson's disease really go hand in hand. We have known that before, but this is a very large study," he added. "Understanding how depression occurs still remains a mystery. There is something about the Parkinson's disease brain that leads to depression."

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