Are anti-epileptics the missing link between epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease?
Patients taking at least one of four common medications face a greater risk of parkinsonism, suggest UK Biobank data
Patients taking anti-epileptic drugs are almost twice as likely to develop Parkinson’s disease than those not taking the medication, UK researchers report.
Their analysis of some 10,000 older adults suggested the risk was highest among those given sodium valproate and levetiracetam, who experienced a three- to fourfold higher risk of diagnosis.
The findings were consistent with previous reports of a temporal association between epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease, said the authors from Queen Mary University of London.
“One explanation for the association … is that medications prescribed to treat epilepsy may increase [Parkinson’s disease] risk,” they wrote in JAMA Neurology.
