People who abuse methamphetamine or other stimulants are at increased risk for Parkinson’s disease, a new study warns. Researchers analyzed the medical records of 40,472 people aged 30 and older in California who were hospitalized because of methamphetamine- or amphetamine-use disorders between 1990 and 2005. They were compared to 207,831 people with no addiction who were admitted for appendicitis and 35,335 admitted for cocaine-use disorders during the same period. The patients with methamphetamine- or amphetamine-use disorders were 76 percent more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease than those not using the drugs. This means that over 10 years, 21 out of 10,000 people with methamphetamine or amphetamine dependence would develop Parkinson’s, compared with 12 out of 10,000 people in the general population.
