http://goo.gl/RZV4ys
As well as finding that meth users have three times the risk for getting Parkinson's disease as non-users, the researchers also observed that female meth users may be nearly five times more likely than women who do not use drugs to develop Parkinson's.
However, the researchers are not sure why women who used meth appeared to be more at risk than men who used meth.
"Typically, fewer females use meth than males do," Hanson says. "Even though women are less likely to use it, there appears to be a gender bias toward women in the association between meth use and Parkinson's."
"Normally, women develop Parkinson's less often than men," adds co-author Karen Curtin, PhD, research assistant professor of medicine at the university and associate director of the UPDB.
"However, women may not achieve the same improvement in symptoms from medications or surgery," she considers. "If meth addiction leads to sharply increased incidence of Parkinson's disease in women, we should all be concerned."