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To contact Honglei Chen, M.D., Ph.D., call Kevin Myron 617/432-3952. To contact editorialist Mya Schiess, M.D., call Meredith Raine 713/500-3308.

SOME OVER THE COUNTER PAIN RELIEVERS MAY REDUCE RISK OF PARKINSON DISEASE

CHICAGO—The risk of developing Parkinson disease (PD) may be lowered by taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs, such as ibuprofen, indomethacin and naproxen) according to an article in the August issue of The Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Patients with PD experience a gradual loss of motor function due to cell death in the brain, according to the article. Although the exact cause or causes of PD are unknown, some NSAIDs appear to protect against the development of PD in animals, and regular use of NSAIDs may reduce the risk of Alzheimer disease in humans.

Honglei Chen, M.D., Ph.D., of the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, and colleagues investigated whether the use of aspirin or non-aspirin NSAIDs is associated with a decreased risk of PD.

The researchers studied 44,057 men participating in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, which took place between 1986 and 2000, and 98,845 women who participated in the Nurses' Health Study which took place between 1980 and 1998. The participants had no history of PD, stroke or cancer at the beginning of the studies.

The researchers documented 415 new cases of PD (236 men and 179 women). Regular use of non-aspirin NSAIDs was reported by 6.1 percent of men and 3.7 percent of women. Participants who reported regular use of non-aspirin NSAIDs at the beginning of the study had about a 45 percent lower risk of developing PD than non-regular users. The researchers also found a non-significant trend toward a decrease in risk among participants who took 2 or more tablets of aspirin per day compared with non-users, but not among those taking smaller amounts of aspirin.

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 3 P.M. (CT), MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 2003
To contact Denis A. Evans, M.D., call Chris Martin at 312/942-7820.

AS U.S. POPULATION AGES, PREVALENCE OF ALZHEIMER DISEASE EXPECTED TO INCREASE SUBSTANTIALLY

CHICAGO—The number of people with Alzheimer disease (AD) in the United States will continue to increase unless new discoveries are made to prevent this illness, according to an article in the August issue of The Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Because AD places a heavy burden on the health care system and profoundly affects the health and well being of those who develop the disease as well as those who care for them, estimates of its prevalence are important for public health planning, according to the article.

Denis A. Evans, M.D., of Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, and colleagues estimated the incidence of AD by applying data from a biracial (black and white) urban (3 neighborhoods in south Chicago) study of AD prevalence to U.S. Census Bureau estimates of U.S. population growth.

The researchers found that in 2000, there were an estimated 4.5 million people with AD in the U.S. population. By 2050, the researchers estimate that this number will nearly triple to approximately 13.2 million. Due to the increasing numbers of people aged 85 years and older, the authors project that by 2050, individuals aged 85 and older with AD will more than quadruple to 8 million, those aged 75 to 84 years old with AD will double to 4.8 million, and the number aged 65 to 74 years old with AD will remain fairly constant at a half-million or less (0.3 to 0.5 million).

"These estimates suggest that prevalence of AD in the U.S. population will substantially increase, as older age groups increase in size," the authors write. "Further, the age distribution of the disease will change, as much of this increase will be attributable to the number of persons older than 85 with AD."