TOKYO, March 19 (UPI) -- The drug risedronate seems to slow osteoporosis in Parkinson's disease patients, thus reducing hip fractures, say Japanese researchers.
The two-year study enrolled 242 elderly men with Parkinson's disease in Tokyo, with patients given either risedronate and vitamin D2, or placebo with vitamin D2.
The patients taking risedronate were three times less likely to have a hip fracture compared to those on placebo, the researchers said, adding that bone mineral density among the risedronate-treated patients rose by 2.2 percent, but dropped by almost 3 percent in the placebo group.
Importantly, the study also showed a key biomarker for bone loss also went down by nearly 47 percent in the drug-treated men, but shot up 33 percent among the placebo patients.
"Prior to the study, these men had been experiencing a rapid rate of bone loss due to inactivity," said study author Yoshihiro Sato, a physician with Mitate Hospital in Tokyo. "Our findings show risedronate, along with vitamin D2, effectively controls the progression of osteoporosis, and reduces the risk of hip fractures."
He added the study suggests risedronate is more effective than the drug alendronate, which has been found in previous studies to reduce bone loss and prevent hip fractures in the same patient population.
The research in published in the March 20 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
