Antiepileptic Drugs Associated With Higher Odds of Developing Parkinson Disease

Antiepileptic drugs appear to be linked with an increased risk of subsequent Parkinson disease, according to study findings published in JAMA Neurology.

“This study, the first to systematically look at Parkinson disease risk in individuals prescribed the most common antiepileptic drugs, to our knowledge, found evidence of an association between antiepileptic drugs and incident Parkinson disease,” wrote first author Daniel Belete, MBChB, of the Queen Mary University of London Preventive Neurology Unit in England, and coauthors. “With the recent literature demonstrating an association between epilepsy and Parkinson disease, this study provides further insights.”

The case-control study included 1433 patients with Parkinson disease matched for age, sex, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status with 8598 controls in the UK Biobank. Among the patients with Parkinson disease, 60.9% were male, 97.5% were White, and the median age was 71 years.

The odds ratio for incident Parkinson disease in patients routinely prescribed carbamazepine, lamotrigine, levetiracetam, or sodium valproate was 1.80 compared with patients without exposure to antiepileptic drugs, according to the study.

Additionally, researchers reported “a trend for a greater number of prescription issues and multiple antiepileptic drugs being associated with a greater risk of Parkinson disease.”

In light of the findings, the research team recommended examination of the relative contribution of epilepsy and antiepileptic drugs to increased Parkinson disease risk.

Reference:
Belete D, Jacobs BM, Simonet C, et al. Association between antiepileptic drugs and incident Parkinson disease in the UK Biobank. JAMA Neurol. Published online December 27, 2022. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2022.4699