Antibiotic Exposure May Be Tied to Risk for Parkinson Disease

Exposure to certain types of oral antibiotics may be associated with an elevated risk for Parkinson disease (PD), according to a study published online in Movement Disorders.

Tuomas H. Mertsalmi, M.D., from University of Helsinki, and colleagues used a nationwide register to evaluate the impact of antibiotic exposure on the risk for PD among patients diagnosed from 1998 to 2014. Antibiotic prescriptions were evaluated from 1993 to 2014. The analysis included 13,976 PD cases and 40,697 controls.

The researchers found the strongest connection with PD risk for oral exposure to macrolides and lincosamides (adjusted odds ratio, 1.416). Exposure to antianaerobics and tetracyclines 10 to 15 years before the index date, sulfonamides and trimethoprim one to five years before the index date, and antifungal medications one to five years before the index date were positively associated with PD risk after correction for multiple comparisons. Further positive associations were found for broad-spectrum antibiotics in post hoc analyses.

"The pattern of associations supports the hypothesis that effects on gut microbiota could link antibiotics to PD, but further studies are needed to confirm this," the authors write.

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