Using data gathered from one hundred million Norwegian prescriptions for drugs over the past eleven years, researchers at the University of Bergen found that an asthma drug could cut the risk of Parkinson’s disease in half.
Parkinson’s disease is a chronic disease with unknown causes that destroys the brain cells that control body movement. Symptoms can develop slowly and sometimes it takes time to get a correct diagnosis.
The work involved processing information from the Norwegian Prescription Database in collaboration with researchers at Harvard University. The analysis of data from the entire population of Norway was crucial for the conclusion in this study.
The work of the Norwegian scientists came after researchers from Harvard University discovered the effects of drugs in animal tests and in experiments with brain cells in the laboratory. Their results showed that an asthma drug and a high blood pressure drug had the opposite effect on the risk of Parkinson’s disease.
After analyzing the entire Norwegian population, the authors found the same results that were obtained in animal tests at Harvard University. These drugs have never been studied in relation to Parkinson’s disease before. The discoveries could be the beginning of an entirely new possible treatment for this serious condition.