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Updated: May 26, 2026

Ole Isacson: Development of New Therapies for Parkinson's Disease
Published on: April 29, 2007
Development of Parkinson's disease in patients with Narcolepsy
Chadwick W Christine1, William J Marks, Jill L Ostrem
1Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, 400 Parnassus Avenue, Box 0348, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA. Chad.Christine@ucsf.edu
Abstract:
Although amphetamine drugs can damage dopaminergic axons, it is unknown whether chronic treatment with amphetamine increases the risk of developing Parkinson's disease (PD). Of 1,152 consecutive PD patients, 3 had a prior diagnosis of narcolepsy. This rate is five times higher than expected (p = 0.02). These patients had typical onset of narcolepsy and underwent treatment with amphetamine. Although preliminary, this observation raises the possibility that some factors intrinsic to narcolepsy or its treatment may be a risk factor for PD.
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