Risk takers may
have lower rate
of Parkinson’s disease
Newswise — Risk takers
may have lower rates of Parkinson’s disease, suggests
research in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and
Psychiatry.
Parkinson’s disease is
a degenerative neurological disorder, which becomes more
common with older age. But its cause is still unclear.
The research team
compared 106 patients with confirmed Parkinson’s disease
with 106 healthy people of the same age and sex. Both
groups completed a validated questionnaire designed to
clarify personality traits and behaviour.
Information was also
collected on cigarette smoking, coffee and alcohol
intake: previous research indicates that higher caffeine
and nicotine consumption may protect against Parkinson’s
disease.
Patients with
Parkinson’s disease scored lower on sensation
seeking/risk taking behaviour and higher on anxiety and
depression than the healthy comparison group.
They were also less
likely to have ever smoked, and when they had to have
given up many years earlier. They also drank less coffee
and alcohol than their healthy peers.
When the data were
analysed further, the association between less tendency
to sensation seeking/risk taking behaviour and higher
rates of Parkinson’s disease remained, irrespective of
smoking, coffee and alcohol intake.
Furthermore, the
disinclination to sensation seeking explained some of
the apparent effect of caffeine and alcohol on
Parkinson’s disease.
The findings prompt
the authors to suggest that there may be a
neurobiological link between low sensation seeking
behaviour, which might underpin the “parkinsonian
personality,” and the supposed protective effect of
cigarette smoking and coffee consumption.
Patients with
Parkinson’s disease tend to spurn openly hedonistic
activity while at the same time being scrupulous,
socially withdrawn, inflexible, disinclined to take
risks and relatively passive.
Dopamine systems in
the brain may help explain the particular behavioural
and personality traits in Parkinson’s disease, which can
precede the emergence of movement problems by several
decades, say the authors.