Study of veterans reveals one concussion may increase risk for Parkinson’s disease
July 07, 2018
Suffering any level of traumatic brain injury – mild, moderate or severe – may make a person more susceptible to developing Parkinson’s disease, new research shows.
According to the study, published in Neurology, the American Academy of Neurology’s medical journal, after a mild injury, often a concussion, the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease increased 56 percent. After a moderate to severe injury, the increased risk was 83 percent. In addition, veterans who sustained a traumatic brain injury were diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease two years earlier than veterans who were unaffected.
The researchers examined U.S. Veterans Health Administration databases and tracked 325,870 veterans who were between 31 and 65 years old. When the study began, none of the veterans had Parkinson’s disease or dementia, but half had received a diagnosis of a mild, moderate or severe brain injury.
“Because of the size of the study, this now really provides the highest level of evidence to date that even mild TBI increases risk for Parkinson’s disease,” said the lead study author Dr. Raquel C. Gardner, a neurologist and assistant professor at the University of California, San Francisco. Gardner added that up to 40 percent of adults have suffered from what is classified as a mild traumatic brain injury.
The study’s findings support an argument for better and swifter treatment of all types of brain injury in military veterans and civilians.