NSAIDs and Parkinson's Disease

Regular use of OTC ibuprofen may reduce risk for developing Parkinson's disease.
USA Today (3/2, Marcus) reports, "Regular use of the common over-the-counter pain reliever ibuprofen may cut the risk of developing Parkinson's disease," according to a study, which was "one of the largest to investigate the possible benefits of ibuprofen on Parkinson's," published in the March 8 issue of Neurology.
According to Medscape (3/2, Jeffrey), the researchers hey analyzed data on 136,197 men and women from the "large, ongoing, prospective cohorts, the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS)." The use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) "was assessed by questionnaire."
HealthDay (3/2, Doheny) reported, "During the six-year follow up, 291 cases of Parkinson's disease were identified. Those who used ibuprofen had a 38 percent reduced risk of developing the disease compared to those who didn't use it, even after taking into account age, smoking and other factors." Moreover, when the researchers "conducted a larger analysis using data from other studies on ibuprofen, other NSAIDs and disease risk, they found that, overall, ibuprofen users reduced their risk of Parkinson's by 27 percent compared to non-users."
WebMD (3/2, Goodman) added that the research also indicated that "regularly taking ibuprofen or other NSAIDs over a long period may sometimes lead to side effects including stomach or kidney damage." Meanwhile, in an editorial that accompanied the study, James H. Bower, MD, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, wrote, "It's my opinion that we're not ready, at all, to advise people from a public health perspective that they should start taking ibuprofen."