Diabetes patients taking glitazone drugs had a 28% lower incidence of Parkinson’s than those who had never received the treatments, a study found.
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However, when the investigators looked at past and current glitazone users separately, they found that the lower risk of Parkinson’s was seen only in people now using a glitazone (a 41 percent lower risk of Parkinson’s), not in those who had previously used glitazones but had stopped or switched to another class of diabetes drugs.
Approximately 127,000 people in the United Kingdom are suffering from Parkinson’s disease, which can cause slow movement, tremor and stiff muscles.
Douglas and his team found that participants who belonged to the glitazone group were less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease, but the glitazone pills did not provide long-term benefits to the patients.
In a recent press release, senior author Dr. Ian Douglas, said, “We often hear about negative side effects associated with medications, but sometimes there can also be unintended beneficial effects”.
He added that their findings have come up with unique evidence, so they are looking forward to do further investigation into potential drug treatments for the condition. “It’s thought that around one in 500 people are affected by Parkinson’s, and to date no effective treatments have been found to directly tackle the neurodegenerative aspect of the disease”.
LONDON, July 21 Two problematic diabetes drugs associated with worrying side effects may reduce the risk of patients developing Parkinson’s disease, offering a springboard for further research, scientists said on Tuesday. However, users who were receiving medication for diabetes without glitazones did not show the same effect. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, the researchers examined patients with diabetes in the UK.
Patients were followed up from 1999 (when glitazones were introduced to treat diabetes) until 2013, to determine how many were diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease during that period.
Researchers scoured United Kingdom electronic health records to compare 44,597 people prescribed glitazone pills with 120,373 people using other anti-diabetic treatment.
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The latest study focuses exclusively on people with diabetes who did not have Parkinson’s disease at the beginning of the project.
