Smoking-Parkinson’s Link; Kids, COVID, and Neurologic Outcomes; Z-Drugs and Opioids

Smoking was a protective factor against Parkinson’s disease in a Mendelian randomization study, but only when current versus former smokers were compared. (Scientific Reports)

Osmophobia — an aversion to odors — may be a diagnostic marker for migraine in children and adolescents. (Headache)

Pridopidine, a highly selective sigma-1 receptor agonist, was granted FDA orphan drug designation for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), drugmaker Prilenia announced.

Nearly four in 100 children hospitalized with COVID-19 developed neurological complications, a U.K. study showed. (Lancet Child & Adolescent Health)

Three large hospitals — the Cleveland Clinic, Mount Sinai Health System in New York City, and Providence in Renton, Washington — say they will not administer aducanumab (Aduhelm) to patients. (Wall Street Journal)

An expert panel for watchdog group ICER voted 15-0 that aducanumab offered zero benefit in Alzheimer’s disease beyond routine care. (Fierce Pharma)

Aducanumab should not be used to treat cerebral amyloid angiopathy outside clinical trials, researchers warned. (Lancet Neurology)

MRI T2 lesions resolve completely more often in myelin-oligodendrocyte-glycoprotein-IgG-associated disorder (MOGAD) than in aquaporin-4-IgG-positive neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder or multiple sclerosis (MS), Mayo Clinic researchers showed. (Neurology)

Biogen and China’s InnoCare Pharma said they will develop orelabrutinib, an oral small-molecule Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor, as a potential MS treatment.

Older adults who developed late-onset epilepsy had a higher mortality than those without epilepsy, even after adjusting for comorbidities. (Neurology)

Drug overdose deaths climbed to 93,000 in 2020, a 29% jump from the previous record high in 2019, CDC data showed.

Both benzodiazepine and nonbenzodiazepine hypnotics (z-drugs) raised mortality risk in Medicare patients who used them with opioids, suggesting the combination of z-drugs and opioids may be more dangerous than previously thought. (PLOS Medicine)