Stress-induced Parkinson's Disease And Analysis Of Relevant Factors

ObjectiveTo investigate whether stress is a risk factor of Parkinson's disease (PD), to study the factors that may influence onset of PD within six months after the stressful event, and to clarify what initial symptom may be influenced by stress.Methods103 out-patients diagnosed as PD and 42 in-patients diagnosed as ischemic cerebral vascular disease (ICVD) were included in the study. PD patients were classified by stressful event history to two groups:Group A (no stress), Group B(stress), and the latter group was divided into two subgroups, Group B1(stress dated back to less than half a year before PD) and Group B2(stress dated back to more than half a year before PD), according to the occurrence time of stress. PD patients were also sorted to two groups:tremor-onset group and dyskinesia-onset group on the basis of major initial symptoms. The difference on stress between PD group and ICVD group was examined. Then the difference on relative factors was contrasted between Group B1 versus Group A, Group B1 versus Group B2, and tremor-onset group versus dyskinesia-onset group, respectively. The univariate analysis was done by SPSS 17.0 software.Results36.9% PD patients reported stress before onset of PD, whereas 33.3% ICVD patients reported stress before onset of ICVD (P>0.05). The incidence of stress dated back to less than half a year before onset reached 16.5% in PD patients, howbeit 4.8% in ICVD patients (P＜0.05, OR=3.95). The percentage of patients with the history of multiple stress was 58.8% in Group B1, howbeit 19.0% in Group B2 (P＜0.05, OR=6.07). However, no significant difference on other relevant factors was found between Group B1 versus Group A, Group B1 versus Group B2, and tremor-onset group versus dyskinesia-onset group.ConclusionStress is apt to develop PD, rather than ICVD, in less than half a year. People subjected to stress once have more possibility to develop PD within half a year after a new attack of stress. Otherwise, no specific initial symptom inclines to be induced by stress in Parkinson's disease.