Depression ‘more common in newly-diagnosed Parkinson’s patients’

People with newly-diagnosed Parkinson's disease are twice as likely to suffer from depression and anxiety, according to a new US study.

Conducted by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, the research monitored the mental health of 423 early-stage Parkinson's patients over a two-year period.

It was found that 14 percent of patients with Parkinson's experienced depression, compared to 6.6 percent in a group of healthy volunteers. This trend became more exacerbated over the two-year assessment period.

Despite this, 65 to 72 percent of patients who screened positive for depression were still not being treated with medication, suggesting the mental health burden in Parkinson's disease patients is under-recognised.

Dr Daniel Weintraub, associate professor of psychiatry and neurology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, said: "There are psychological reasons why people who have been diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease like Parkinson's can become depressed, but their brain pathways are also affected by the disease and these are closely associated with mood."

Around one in 500 people is affected by Parkinson's disease, with around 127,000 people in the UK suffering from the condition.