Ibuprofen and aspirin don’t seem to have an impact on the progression of Parkinson’s disease, according to a new report published in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences.
Some previously conducted research shows that people who use non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDs) including aspirin and ibuprofen are less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease, while other research refutes the idea. The connection between NSAIDs and Parkinson’s risk is inconclusive, according to the report.
There may be a connection between the medications and a person’s risk for the disease, but there hasn’t been a lot of research on how the medications affect the development of the disease in people who already have it. That’s what the current study explored.
Researchers looked at data on two studies spanning about 1,200 people. The data didn’t show an association between non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug exposure and death. The researchers also didn’t find a statistically significant link between using NSAIDs and patterns of brain damage over the first four years in the study. The team said in the report that people who used NSAIDs tended to have poorer scores on cognitive tests.
“This finding was unexpected and warrants further study,” the researchers wrote.
The scientists said it’s hard to collect accurate data on the use of non-prescription medications because they may not be used regularly or may only be taken as needed. That makes it hard to do a solid assessment. The number of people using ibuprofen was low in the data the researchers reviewed. This made it impossible to draw firm conclusions about that specific NSAID. But based on the data that they did have, it didn’t seem like the medications impacted the way Parkinson’s disease progressed in people who already had it.
“Despite these limitations, it does not appear that the incidental use of NSAIDs after diagnosis has a robust impact on [Parkinson’s] progression,” the scientists said.
