Can Head Injury as an Adult Result in Parkinson Disease?

A study comparing PD incidence after traumatic brain injury versus nonbrain injury suggests that brain injury specifically increases risk for PD.

Many studies have addressed the potential association between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and later occurrence of Parkinson disease (PD), but results have conflicted. One problem has been a lack of an appropriate control group. To provide better data, investigators used International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, (ICD-9) codes to identify patients with TBI compared with non-TBI trauma, and subsequent PD diagnoses, from California-based hospitals, excluding patients younger than 55 and those with known PD or dementia. Follow-up lasted up to 6 years.

There were 52,393 TBI cases and 113,406 traumas without head or neck injury (fractures). The likelihood of diagnosis of PD after TBI was 1.7% versus 1.1% after non-TBI injury, a sig…

Reviewing Author

Michael S. Okun, MD

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardParkinson’s Foundation; Tourette Association of America

Speaker’s BureauMedscape/WebMD CME, Movement Disorders Society CME, American Academy of Neurology CME

RoyaltiesBooks4Patients; Demos; Cambridge; Taylor and Francis; Robert Rose; Public Affairs

Grant/Research SupportNational Institutes of Health; Parkinson’s Foundation; Tourette Association of America; University of Florida Foundation

Editorial BoardsTremor and Other Hyperkinetic Movements; JAMA Neurology

Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesParkinson’s Foundation (Medical Advisor)