Movement Disorders · Apr 29, 2026

Revisiting the Association Between Calcium Channel Blockers and Parkinson's Disease in the E3N Cohort

By Moutard E, Fournier A, Courtois É et al.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies on calcium channel blockers (CCBs) and Parkinson's disease (PD) risk reached conflicting conclusions. OBJECTIVES: We examined the relationship between CCBs and PD in the E3N cohort of French women followed for 15 years (2004-2018), while taking into account the potential for reverse causation. METHODS: New users of CCBs were identified using drug reimbursement databases. We validated incident PD using several data sources. We described trajectories of CCBs use using mixed logistic models within a nested case-control study. We used Cox proportional hazards models for time-varying variables to estimate the association between CCBs (overall, amlodipine, non-amlodipine dihydropyridines [DiCCBs], non-dihydropyridines [non-DiCCBs]) and PD. Main analyses used a 5-year lag; sensitivity analyses without a lag were performed for comparison. RESULTS: Among 82,605 women, 603 developed PD and 13,022 used CCBs. Women who started non-DiCCBs had higher PD risk than never users (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.56; 95% confidence interval [95% CI] = 0.99-2.46; P-trend ≤ 0.02). Among non-DiCCBs, diltiazem was associated with PD (HR = 2.20 [95% CI = 1.19-4.04]). There were no significant associations for CCBs overall, amlodipine, and non-amlodipine DiCCBs. In analyses without a lag, amlodipine (HR = 1.45 [95% CI = 1.13-1.87]) and diltiazem (HR = 1.63 [95% CI = 1.02-2.60]) were associated with PD. Results are consistent with trajectories of CCBs prescriptions in PD patients and controls. DISCUSSION: Overall, CCBs were not associated with PD but women who started using diltiazem had higher PD incidence in lagged analyses. Diltiazem and amlodipine were associated with PD in analyses without a lag. These findings are consistent with case reports of parkinsonism induced by specific CCBs and warrant further studies and surveillance. © 2026 The Author(s). Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

doi.org/10.1002/mds.70336Open accessPubMed 42056066Populations