Summary: New research shows that higher levels of the personality trait neuroticism are associated with a greater risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.
Source: Florida State University
Researchers at the Florida State University College of Medicine report that neuroticism — a personality trait marked by a tendency to experience negative emotions and stress — is consistently linked to an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease.
Led by Professor of Geriatrics Antonio Terracciano, the team’s study published in Movement Disorders analyzed data from a very large prospective cohort and combined it with other high-quality studies in a meta-analysis. Adults who scored in the top quartile for neuroticism had more than an 80% higher risk of being diagnosed with Parkinson’s compared with those who scored lower on neuroticism measures.
“Some clinicians assume anxiety and depression emerge only after Parkinson’s develops,” Terracciano said. “Our findings indicate that emotional vulnerability linked to neuroticism can be detectable many years before Parkinson’s diagnosis.”
The association between neuroticism and Parkinson’s was similar for women and men and across socioeconomic groups. The result remained robust after excluding cases that appeared within the first five years of follow-up and after adjusting for potential confounders including age, sex, smoking status, physical activity, anxiety and depressive symptoms.
Three earlier prospective studies reported consistent results, though with smaller sample sizes. Combined with the current large-scale analysis, the evidence provides a solid and reproducible signal that higher neuroticism is linked to elevated Parkinson’s risk.
“This strengthens our understanding of risk factors for Parkinson’s and suggests that personality-related emotional patterns are one of several contributors to disease development,” Terracciano added. “While neuroticism is not the sole cause, the consistency of the findings is persuasive.”
Parkinson’s disease affects an estimated six million people worldwide — about 1% of older adults — making it the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer’s. Its causes are incompletely understood, but a mix of genetic and environmental factors are thought to play roles.
Neuroticism is one of the “Big Five” personality traits and reflects tendencies toward negative affect, emotional instability, stress sensitivity, and self-consciousness. It has been extensively studied for its links to mood disorders and cognitive decline, but fewer large-scale studies have explored its prospective relationship with Parkinson’s until now.
“People who score high in neuroticism are at increased risk for adverse health outcomes across the lifespan, particularly in mental health and neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias,” Terracciano noted. The new results extend that pattern to Parkinson’s disease.
The research relied heavily on the UK Biobank, a large population study that enrolled nearly half a million participants aged 40–69 between 2006 and 2010 and followed them for nearly 12 years. Participants completed a baseline neuroticism assessment, and incident Parkinson’s cases were identified using National Health Service electronic health records and death records through 2018. Within the cohort of 490,755 participants, researchers identified 1,142 incident cases of Parkinson’s.
Terracciano emphasized that anxiety and depression are commonly comorbid with Parkinson’s disease. While some of those symptoms may arise as a direct consequence of neurodegeneration or as a reaction to receiving a diagnosis, the new findings indicate that a longstanding tendency toward negative emotionality can precede and predict disease onset.
Parkinson’s is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by loss of dopaminergic neurons, which leads to motor symptoms such as tremor, bradykinesia (slowness of movement), rigidity, and balance problems. Dopamine also influences motivation, reward, memory and attention, so its decline contributes to both motor and non-motor symptoms.
The study team included postdoctoral researcher Damaris Aschwanden and Professor Angelina Sutin from Florida State University, alongside collaborators from the University of Montpellier, the National Research Council and Tor Vergata University of Rome, and the University of Cambridge.
About this Parkinson’s disease research news
Source: Florida State University
Contact: Bob Thomas – Florida State University
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Original Research: Closed access. “Neuroticism and Risk of Parkinson’s Disease: A Meta‐Analysis” by Antonio Terracciano et al., published in Movement Disorders.
Abstract
Neuroticism and Risk of Parkinson’s Disease: A Meta‐Analysis
Background
Although neuroticism has established links to mood disorders and Alzheimer’s disease, fewer large-scale prospective studies have examined its relationship with Parkinson’s disease.
Objectives
To evaluate the association between neuroticism and incident Parkinson’s disease using a large cohort and to synthesize available prospective evidence through a meta-analysis.
Methods
Nearly 490,755 UK Biobank participants completed a neuroticism scale between 2006 and 2010. Incident Parkinson’s cases were identified from health and death records through 2018. The systematic review and meta-analysis followed established reporting guidelines for observational studies.
Results
Over a mean follow-up of 8.9 years (nearly 4.36 million person-years), 1,142 incident Parkinson’s cases were recorded. Higher neuroticism was associated with greater risk of Parkinson’s both when measured continuously and when comparing top versus bottom quartiles. The association persisted after adjusting for demographic and health-related factors and after excluding early cases. A random-effects meta-analysis of four prospective studies (total N = 548,284) found a consistent association between higher neuroticism and increased Parkinson’s risk, with no evidence of heterogeneity across studies spanning one to four decades of follow-up.
Conclusion
Findings from the UK Biobank and the meta-analysis indicate that higher neuroticism is consistently associated with an increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.