Research found an association, but no cause-and-effect relationship between the two conditions
MONDAY, March 21, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Rosacea is associated with an increased risk for Parkinson’s disease, according to research published online March 21 in JAMA Neurology.
Alexander Egeberg, M.D., Ph.D., of the Herlev and Gentofte Hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark, and colleagues identified 22,387 Parkinson’s patients and 68,053 individuals with rosacea.
The team found that patients with rosacea were more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease, but they also appeared to have it two years earlier than patients without the skin condition. The link appears to be associated with rosacea itself, not the medications used to treat it, the researchers said. They found reduced risk of Parkinson’s among patients who took tetracycline, a common rosacea treatment.
“Rosacea constitutes an independent risk factor for Parkinson’s disease. This association could be due to shared pathogenic mechanisms involving elevated matrix metalloproteinase activity,” the authors write. “The clinical consequences of this association require further study.”
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