New Insight Into Link Between Depression, Dementia!
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Having depressive symptoms speeds cognitive decline, but the relationship is not due to the presence of β-amyloid, tau tangles, or other brain pathology, results of a new postmortem study suggest. Researchers have known for some time that depression is related to elevated risk for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia, but they haven't agreed on why this is the case. Many in the field were convinced that the relationship is driven by underlying cognitive issues and that people become depressed as a result of getting more demented
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@rajanya Annual examinations included a 10-item short form of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, which is similar to the original version of the scale, including the ability to capture change in symptoms over time, but doesn't incorporate cognitive symptoms. Participants also completed 18 cognitive tests at the annual visits. The 1764 study participants included in the analysis had an average age of 76.6 years at the start of the study and an average of 16.2 years of schooling. At baseline, each of these participants reported a mean of 1.0 symptom on the depression scale. In an analysis that assessed change in depressive symptoms during a mean of 7.8 years of follow-up, depressive symptoms increased over time, mainly because of a slight decline in the likelihood of having no symptoms. Over the course of follow-up, 52.2% of the participants developed mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Incident MCI was associated with a higher level of depressive symptoms before MCI onset but not with rate of change in symptoms after MCI onset.