Parkinson ’s Disease Associated With Increased Risk of Suicide, Study Finds

Suicide risk is about two times higher in patients with Parkinson ’s disease than the general population, even after adjusting for physical and mental comorbidities, according to astudy published Wednesday inJAMA Psychiatry. “Approximately 40% to 50% of patients with [Parkinson’s] are affected by depression, and 30% to 40% are affected by anxiety disorders,” wrote Ying-Yeh Chen, M.D., Sc.D., of the Taipei City Psychiatric Center in Taiwan and colleagues. “In addition to the long-established associations between mental disorders and suicide, the physical limitations caused by [Parkinson’s] and the well-known increased risk of suicide in older persons call for attention to the likelihood of suicide in [these] patients.”Chen and colleagues conducted a cohort study using Taiwan ’s National Health Insurance data, identifying 35,891 patients who received a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis between 2005 and 2014, with follow-up through 2016. Each patient with Parkinson’s was matched with four control participants (those who had not been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease) , for a total control cohort of 143,577. The researchers also analyzed whether the participants had been diagnosed with dementia, depression, or another mental disorder within one year prior to or after the onset of Parkinson’s. Data on suicides were obtained from the Taiwan Death Registry from 20 05 to 2016.In patients with Parkinson ’s, the 11-year cumulative incidence of suicide was 66...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: depression integrated care JAMA Psychiatry Parkinson's disease suicide Source Type: research