Caffeine and Parkinson's Disease

Elise Howard

Blog Post

Caffeine and Parkinson’s Disease

Most think that caffeine has uses in only keeping our energy up throughout the day by drinking coffee, energy drinks, or sodas. However in an article by Postuma (2012), results showed that caffeine may have some implications in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). There has not been much research on the topic especially focusing on caffeine to alleviate some symptoms that are commonly associated with PD. In a randomized control study caffeine was administered to patients with PD to assess its effects upon daytime somnolence (severe drowsiness or desire to sleep), motor severity, and other non-motor features. Doses of 100mg of caffeine were administered to subjects with PD and were in the treatment group twice daily for the first three weeks of the study, and for the last three weeks, 200mg doses of caffeine were administered twice a day (Postuma, 2012).

Although the effects on daytime somnolence were minimal, results showed that administration of caffeine help improve the irregular motor functions that are associated with PD. The primary mechanism of action is the antagonism of anenosine-2A receptors with are involved in striatopallidal neuron activity, which inhibit movement to a certain degree. Therefore, adding caffeine would increase motor function by inhibiting the striatopallidal neurons. Another theory as to why caffeine seems to have the effect of improving motor function is that caffeine may increase the bioavailability and prolong the effects of levodopa (L-dopa), which is used to increase dopamine levels in PD patients as the primary theory surrounding PD is low levels of dopamine (Postuma, 2012).

These findings may provide huge contributions in the study of coping with the troublesome motor effects that PD has on patients and making their quality of life much better.

References

Postuma, R. B. (2012). Caffeine for treatment of Parkinson disease: A randomized controlled trial. Neurology, 79(7), 651–658. doi:10.1212/WNL.0b013e318263570d