Depression Risk Increased Before Diagnosis of Parkinson Disease, Lewy Body Dementia

FRIDAY, Jan. 16, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with Parkinson disease (PD) and Lewy body dementia (LBD) have increased rates of incident depression from seven to eight years before to five years after diagnosis, according to a study published online Dec. 3 in General Psychiatry.Christopher Rohde, M.D., Ph.D., from Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, and colleagues quantified the incidence of depression in the period preceding and following the diagnosis of PD and LBD in a retrospective case-control study. Patients with a diagnosis of PD or LBD in the period from 2007 to 2019 were matched by age, calendar years of diagnosis, and sex, with up to three patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), chronic kidney disease (CKD), or osteoporosis.A total of 17,711 patients with PD or LBD were identified and matched to 19,556; 40,842; and 47,809 patients with RA, CKD, and osteoporosis, respectively. The researchers found that relative to all comparator groups, patients with PD and LBD had consistently higher hazard rates of incident depression from seven to eight years before diagnosis to five years after diagnosis."Following a diagnosis of PD or LBD, the persistent higher incidence of depression highlights the need for heightened clinical awareness and systematic screening for depressive symptoms in these patients," Rohde said in a statement. "Thus, our main conclusion -- that PD/LBD are associated with a marked excess depression risk preceding and following diagnosis when compared with other chronic conditions -- remains valid."Abstract/Full Text.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Depression Risk Increased Before Diagnosis of Parkinson Disease, Lewy Body Dementia

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