Risk factors for depression in patients with Parkinson's disease: A nationwide nested case-control study

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) have higher prevalence of depression than the general population; however, the risk factors for depression in PD remain uncertain.

Using the 2000-2010 Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database, we selected 1767 patients aged ≧ 40 years with new-onset PD during 2000-2009. Among them, 324 patients with a new incidence of depression were enrolled as cases and 972 patients without depression were randomly selected as controls. The groups were frequency-matched at a ratio of 1:3 by age, sex, and index year. Thus, this nested case-control study compared differences between the cases and the controls. Logistic regression models were used to identify risk factors for depression in PD.

Compared with the controls, the odds ratio (OR) of anxiety disorders in the cases was 1.53 (95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.16-2.02; P = 0.003), after adjusting for the confounding factors of age, sex, index year, geographic region, urban level, monthly income, and other coexisting medical conditions. The OR for sleep disturbances in the cases was 1.49 (95% CI, 1.14-1.96; P = 0.004) compared to the controls, after adjusting these confounding factors. Hence, the risk factors for depression in PD were nonsignificantly associated with physical comorbidities.

In the present study, depression in PD was significantly associated with anxiety disorders and sleep disturbances. Integrated care for early identification and treatment of neuropsychiatric comorbidities is crucial in patients with new-onset PD so as to prevent further PD degeneration.