Robin Williams link? Depression tied to Parkinson’s

By Joe Smydo

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS)

PITTSBURGH

People with depression are at significantly greater risk for Parkinson’s disease than the general population, and those with severe depression are especially vulnerable, according to an article published online recently by Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Researchers reviewed data on more than 560,000 people in Sweden and determined that those with depression developed Parkinson’s at a rate nearly three times that of the other study participants. The more severe the depression, as measured by hospitalizations and other types of treatment, the higher the risk of Parkinson’s.

The authors said the findings suggest that depression is a warning sign or early phase of Parkinson’s, a nervous system disorder characterized by tremors, slurred speech, stiffness, an unusual gait and other symptoms. The findings come less than a year after the suicide of Robin Williams, who had battled depression and was in the early stages of Parkinson’s at the time of his death.

Carol Schramke, a clinical psychologist at Allegheny General Hospital who was not involved in the study, said the research underscores previously known links between psychiatric and neurological disorders.

“These are the kinds of things I tell the residents and medical students,” said Schramke, the hospital’s director of behavioral neurology. When a patient has depression or symptoms of depression, she said, there could be other brain-related problems – Parkinson’s perhaps but also Alzheimer’s, epilepsy or multiple sclerosis – involved.