Risk takers may have lower rates of Parkinson's disease, suggests
research in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

Parkinson's disease is a degenerative neurological disorder, which
becomes more common with older age. But its cause is still unclear.

The research team compared 106 patients with confirmed Parkinson's
disease with 106 healthy people of the same age and sex. Both groups
completed a validated questionnaire designed to clarify personality
traits and behaviour.

Information was also collected on cigarette smoking, coffee and
alcohol intake: previous research indicates that higher caffeine and
nicotine consumption may protect against Parkinson's disease.

Patients with Parkinson's disease scored lower on sensation
seeking/risk taking behaviour and higher on anxiety and depression
than the healthy comparison group.

They were also less likely to have ever smoked, and when they had to
have given up many years earlier. They also drank less coffee and
alcohol than their healthy peers.

When the data were analysed further, the association between less
tendency to sensation seeking/risk taking behaviour and higher rates
of Parkinson's disease remained, irrespective of smoking, coffee and
alcohol intake.

Furthermore, the disinclination to sensation seeking explained some
of the apparent effect of caffeine and alcohol on Parkinson's
disease.

The findings prompt the authors to suggest that there may be a
neurobiological link between low sensation seeking behaviour, which
might underpin the "parkinsonian personality," and the supposed
protective effect of cigarette smoking and coffee consumption.

Patients with Parkinson's disease tend to spurn openly hedonistic
activity while at the same time being scrupulous, socially
withdrawn, inflexible, disinclined to take risks and relatively
passive.

Dopamine systems in the brain may help explain the particular
behavioural and personality traits in Parkinson's disease, which can
precede the emergence of movement problems by several decades, say
the authors.

Article Date: 16 Feb 2006