New study included more than 44,000 diabetes patients in the UK.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Two iterations of diabetes medication may reduce the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, according to a new study published by researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The study included nearly 44,600 British diabetes patients who took what are known as glitazone drugs — Avandia’s generic name is rosiglitazone, while pioglitazone is the generic name for Actos, according to HealthDay News.
Researchers compared data from more than 160,000 diabetes patients in the U.K. and found that patients who took rosiglitazone or pioglitazone had a 28 percent lower chance of developing Parkinson’s than subjects who took other diabetes medication, according to the study, published in the journal PLOS Medicine.
“We often hear about negative side effects associated with medications, but sometimes there can also be unintended beneficial effects,” senior researcher Ian Douglas from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine told Reuters.
While the study — which was funded by the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research — can’t prove cause and effect, the researchers said the findings are in line with prior animal and laboratory tests showing that glitazones might help protect the brain.
However, “more studies are needed to confirm this finding,” Dr. Minisha Sood, a diabetes expert and an endocrinologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, told HealthDay, “and studies in non-diabetic patients should be conducted to examine whether glitazone medications would be effective for that population in the prevention of Parkinson’s disease.”
The drugs were originally developed by GlaxoSmithKline and Takeda, respectively, but they are now off patent, reported Time magazine.