Statin Use and Its Association with Essential Tremor and Parkinson's Disease

Background: Statins have potent anti-inflammatory and immunomodulating effects, and may have neuroprotective properties in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). There are no studies about the use of statins in the related tremor disorder, essential tremor (ET). We determined whether statin use differed in ET cases vs. controls and PD cases vs. controls. Methods: One hundred and thirty nine ET cases, 108 PD cases, and 124 controls participated in a research study of the epidemiology of movement disorders. They were frequency matched based on age and gender. Statin use was assessed by self-report. Results: In adjusted logistic regression analyses, statin use (current or ever) was inversely associated with PD (ORs 0.56-0.63), with marginal values (p values = 0.07-0.187). In similar adjusted models, ET was not associated with statin use (p values = 0.45-0.50). However, ET was inversely associated with longer-term statin use (adjusted OR 0.27, p values = 0.04-0.048). Conclusions: We observed a marginally significant inverse association between PD and statin use. Although in primary analyses we found no evidence that statin use was protective in ET, there was an inverse association in analyses that assessed longer term use of statins. Further observational studies are warranted.