Neuroticism is associated with an increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, according to new research in Movement Disorders.
The study was conducted at Florida State University.
For the study, close to 500,000 participants were examined from the UK Biobank. The participants had finished a neuroticism scale, while incidences of Parkinson’s disease diagnosis were being established through health records leading up to 2018.
“Some clinicians think that the anxiety and depression is just the result of Parkinson’s. However, our findings suggest that some emotional vulnerability is present early in life, years before the development of Parkinson’s disease,” said one author of the study, in a press release.
Although neuroticism has been previously linked to neurodegeneration and mood disorders, its link to Parkinson’s remained vague before these findings.
Based on the study’s results of the UK Biobank, neuroticism was associated with an increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.
“The results from the large UK Biobank and meta‐analysis of prospective studies indicate that neuroticism is consistently associated with a higher risk of incident Parkinson’s disease,” the study determined.
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
