Summary: Older adults who frequently experience bad dreams or nightmares are twice as likely to be diagnosed with Parkinsons disease, a new study reports.

Source: University of Birmingham

Older adults who start to experience bad dreams or nightmares could be exhibiting the earliest signs of Parkinsons disease, say researchers at the University of Birmingham.

A new study, published ineClinicalMedicine, showed that in a cohort of older men, individuals experiencing frequent bad dreams were twice as likely to be later diagnosed with Parkinsons as those who did not.

Previous studies have shown that people with Parkinsons disease experience nightmares and bad dreams more frequently than adults in the general population, but using nightmares as a risk indicator for Parkinsons has not previously been considered.

Lead author, Dr Abidemi Otaiku, of the Universitys Centre for Human Brain Health, said: Although it can be really beneficial to diagnose Parkinsons disease early, there are very few risk indicators and many of these require expensive hospital tests or are very common and non-specific, such as diabetes.

While we need to carry out further research in this area, identifying the significance of bad dreams and nightmares could indicate that individuals who experience changes to their dreams in older age without any obvious trigger should seek medical advice.

The team used data from a large cohort study from the USA, which contained data over a period of 12 years from 3818 older men living independently. At the beginning of the study, the men completed a range of questionnaires, one of which included a question about sleep quality.

Participants reporting bad dreams at least once per week were then followed up at the end of the study to see whether they were more likely to be diagnosed with Parkinsons disease.

During the follow-up period, 91 cases of Parkinsons were diagnosed. The researchers found that participants experiencing frequent bad dreams were twice as likely to develop the disease compared to those who did not.

Most of the diagnoses happened in the first five years of the study. Participants with frequent bad dreams during this period were more than three times as likely to go on to develop Parkinsons.

The results suggest that older adults who will one day be diagnosed with Parkinsons are likely to begin experiencing bad drams and nightmares a few years before developing the characteristic features of Parkinsons, including tremors, stiffness and slowness of movement.

The study also shows that our dreams can reveal important information about our brain structure and function and may prove to be an important target for neuroscience research.

The researchers plan to use electroencephalography (EEG) to look at the biological reasons for dream changes. They will also look at replicating the findings in larger and more diverse cohorts and explore possible links between dreams and other neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers.

Author: Beck LockwoodSource: University of BirminghamContact: Beck Lockwood University of BirminghamImage: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Open access.Distressing dreams and risk of Parkinsons disease: A population-based cohort study by Abidemi Otaiku et al. EClinicalMedicine

Abstract

Distressing dreams and risk of Parkinsons disease: A population-based cohort study

Parkinsons disease (PD) is associated with alterations to the phenomenology of dreaming including an increased frequency of distressing dreams. Whether distressing dreams may precede the development of PD is unknown. This study investigated the association between frequent distressing dreams and the risk of incident PD.

3818 men aged 67 years or older from the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study (MrOS), a population-based cohort from the USA, who were free from PD at baseline (December 2003 April 2011) and completed item 5h of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index which probes the frequency of distressing dreams in the past month, were included in this analysis. Incident PD was based on doctor diagnosis. Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (OR) for incident PD according to distressing dream frequency, with adjustment for potential confounders.

During a mean follow-up of 73 years, 91 (24%) cases of incident PD were identified. Participants with frequent distressing dreams at baseline had a 2-fold risk for incident PD (OR, 201; 95% CI, 11-36,P=0.02). When stratified by follow-up time, frequent distressing dreams were associated with a greater than 3-fold risk for incident PD during the first 5 years after baseline (OR, 338; 95% CI, 13-87;P=001), however no effect was found during the subsequent 7 years (OR, 155; 95% CI, 07-33;P=026).

In this prospective cohort, frequent distressing dreams were associated with an increased risk for incident PD. The association was only significant within the 5 years prior to diagnosis, which suggests that frequent distressing dreams may be a prodromal symptom of PD.

The study received no external funding.

Read the original post:
Bad Dreams Could Be Early Warning of Parkinson's Disease - Neuroscience News