TAGAWA, Japan, March 19 -- Low-dose bisphosphonate therapy may help reduce the high rate of hip fractures among men with Parkinson's disease, Japanese researchers found.
Men with Parkinson's given risedronate (Actonel) plus vitamin D2 were one-third as likely to suffer hip fracture as those given placebo and vitamin D2, said Yoshihiro Sato, M.D., of Mitate Hospital here, and colleagues.
Risedronate also increased bone mineral density by 2.2% over the two years of the study whereas it fell 2.9% with placebo, they reported in the March 20 issue of Neurology.
In the study, risedronate was given at the 2.5 mg/day dose approved in Japan. In the United States, 5 mg is the dose approved by the FDA for prevention and treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis in women and glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis in men and women.
The prospective study included 242 men (mean age 72.2) with Parkinson's disease but who were otherwise healthy without renal, hepatic, cardiac, or thyroid dysfunction.
The median Parkinson's severity was stage 3.0 on the Hoehn and Yahr scale. About 80% of patients in both groups got less than 15 minutes of sun exposure a week because of reduced mobility, which put them at risk for low levels of vitamin D that may contribute to osteoporosis.
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Neurology/ParkinsonsDisease/tb1/5281
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