Ibuprofen Found to Reduce Risk of Parkinson's Disease

People who regularly take ibuprofen, but not other nonsteroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) may reduce their risk of developing Parkinson's disease, according to a new study.

Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH; Boston, MA, USA) conducted a study that involved 136,474 people who did not have Parkinson's disease at the beginning of the research. Participants were asked about their use of NSAIDs, including aspirin, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen. Six years later, 293 of the participants had developed Parkinson's disease. The researchers found that regular users of ibuprofen (at three tablets a day) were 40% less likely to develop Parkinson's disease than people who did not take ibuprofen did. Additionally, people who took higher amounts of ibuprofen were less likely to develop Parkinson's disease than people who took smaller amounts of the drug. The outcomes were the same regardless of age, smoking, and caffeine intake. The results of the study are to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 62nd annual meeting, to be held during April 2010 in Toronto (ON, Canada).

"Ibuprofen was the only NSAID linked to a lower risk of Parkinson's; other NSAIDs and analgesics, including aspirin and acetaminophen, did not appear to have any effect on lowering a person's risk of developing Parkinson's,” said lead author Xiang Gao, M.D., Ph.D., of the department of nutrition at HSPH. "More research is needed as to how and why ibuprofen appears to reduce the risk of Parkinson's disease, which affects up to one million people in the United States.”

Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system (CNS) that often impairs the sufferer's motor skills, speech, and other functions, and is both chronic and progressive. The disease is characterized by muscle rigidity, tremor, a slowing of physical movement (bradykinesia), and a loss of physical movement (akinesia) in extreme cases; secondary symptoms may include high-level cognitive dysfunction and subtle language problems. The primary symptoms are the result of decreased stimulation of the motor cortex by the basal ganglia, normally caused by the insufficient formation and action of dopamine. The drug levodopa is considered the current standard treatment for Parkinson's disease.

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