A meta-study found that people that regularly take ibuprofen have a lower chance of developing Parkinson's.
Questionaires were sent to about 160,000 people in the health profession field, and asked them how often they used over-the-counter painkillers (aspirin, ibuprofen, other NSAIDs, acetaminophen), as well as the dose. After controlling for cofounding factors, it was found that there was a dose-dependent negative relationship between ibuprofen use and chance of developing Parkinson's. This decrease in risk was not associated with other NSAIDs.
The authors acknowledge that this is not representative of the general public, but that the same physiological processes should apply to the public. This effect was also not found with other drugs that inhibit COX enzymes, such as aspirin and naproxen. There seems to be some effect of ibuprofen, probably independent of the COX inhibition, that mediates the protective effects.
http://www.neurology.org/content/76/10/863.short
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So sadly I couldn't read the full article since I'm not a subscriber to the Neurology website but I was wondering if they accounted for the "strength" of the medications taken for ibuprofen? I know dose was included but there is a difference between prescribed ibuprofen (usually for arthritic patients) and the common unprescribed ibuprofen (usually used for pains, aches, fever, etc.). There are also medications that couple Ibuprofen with other compounds such as Chlorpheniramine, Pseudoephedrine, and Hydrocodone usually to target multiple symptoms so I was wondering whether the study accounted for this as well or whether it strictly stuck to Ibuprofen and other NSAIDs but I'm sure it's difficult to keep track of 160,000 people and how "honest" they can be.
ReplyDeleteA similar study was conducted for patients with Alzheimer's Disease as well. The idea of actually looking at anti-inflammatory molecules as a therapeutic treatment came from observations of patients with rheumatoid arthritis and how they had a much lower prevalence of developing dementia. These studies actually only demonstrated that long term use (2+ years) of products such as ibuprofen were only effective. I agree that it is puzzling that similar NSAIDs that inhibit COX enzymes don't exhibit the same effects since this mechanism does attenuate pro-inflammatory prostanoid synthesis so that's why I was curious as to the prescription strength and the coupling of maybe other medications. The information for the Alzheimer's study actually came from a British Medical Journal in 2003 which is a bit outdated but something definitely to look at and research some more.
I thought this was really interesting, thanks for posting! However, I also couldn't see the full article so I had some questions/concerns about their methods and results. For one, I always find myself a little skeptical of the questionnaire studies because it is a strong possibility that people do not keep track of their dosage as closely as they should. With that said though, if they did find some strong correlations it definitely seems like a great research topic to look into further...since it could be an extremely easy regiment that could reduce the risk of developing an extremely serious disease. I also found it interesting that it was specific to ibuprofen, and not other COX inhibitors like aspirin (since we usually hear about an aspirin regiment being helpful).
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post! I had the same problem with the article. I was wondering how the questionaire was conducted. Surveys have a problem when they are conducted for study. First the individual taking the survey may lie about their responses to make themselves appear better than they really are. This questionaire could have been conducted in a similar way. I don't think that by conducting a questionaire you would be able to find substantial data for a conclusion. Maybe an animal model for this experiment would yield better results. Then again the protocol for a survey could be improved to the point where I find them appealing. Thanks again for the post.
ReplyDeleteHmmmmm. It seems like everyone had trouble getting the article. If anyone wants it I can email it to you.
ReplyDeleteMy email is swbrooks@email.arizona.edu
To answer Andy G. they did take into account dose, but I think focused mostly on over-the-counter strength (200mg) as a 'dose' of ibuprofen. They also did ask about prescription NSAIDs, so if someone was taking 800mg ibuprofen I think they reported it as 800mg. In addition, I don't know if the abstract says this, but the participants were all doctors or nurses, which should help the result be a little more accurate.
The mechanism seems to be more related to ibuprofen's ability to act as a PPAR-gamma agonist, based on the fact that no other COX inhibitor was effective.
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