Does Cigarette Smoking Have a Protective Effect Against Parkinson's Disease?

Ôbjective: Previous studies reported that individuals with Parkinson’s disease are less likely to have smoking history and it seems that nicotine has a neuroprotective effect. The authors have conducted a case-control retrospective study to determine if there is an association between cigarette smoking and Parkinson’s disease. Ïn a matched case-control study, 92 individuals with Parkinson’s disease (71 men, 21 women; mean age: 67.3±11 year) were compared to 184 people without such a diagnosis. (144 men, 40 women; mean age: 65.7±12.3 year). Nineteen patients in the group with a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease (20.6%) were smoker. Ïn the control group, however, there were 103 smokers. Âlso, we found a dose-response correlation between amount of smoking and higher risk of having Parkinson’s disease.Çonclusion: Çonsistent with the results of previous studies, we found that individuals with Parkinson’s disease are significantly less likely to have smoked regularly than those without Parkinson’s disease