TITLE:
Parkinson’s disease and affective disorder: The temporal relationship
AUTHORS:
Flemming Mørkeberg Nilsson
KEYWORDS:
Parkinson’s Disease; Affective Disorder; Depression; Mania; Temporal Relations
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Psychiatry,
Vol.2 No.2,
April
18,
2012
ABSTRACT: In relationship between the affective disorders and Parkinson’s disease (PD) it was found that comorbidity was higher than expected in the majority of the studies. Patients with PD are at increased risk of developing depression and, conversely, recent studies have shown that patients with depressive disorders have increased risk of incident PD. However, the temporal associations between the disorders are not fully elucidated. From this review it could be learned that the temporal aspects strongly suggest that a neurobiological association exists between affective disorder and PD. This is illustrated with hitherto unpublished data. Some of these issues may be investigated in case register studies, e.g. by linkage of registers of somatic and psychiatric illness, and suggestions for future research are given. For GP’s, psychiatrists, geriatricians, and neurologists these new findings will lead to a better understanding and better treatment for patients with complicated comorbid conditions. Here timing is important!