Patterns of depressive symptoms over 16 years with incident dementia
Key Takeaways
During an 8-year follow-up of elderly adults with late-life depression, depressive symptoms that progressed from mild or were persistently high were associated with an increased risk of dementia.
Putting It Into Practice
Interestingly, adult-onset depression in remission, unlike late-life depression, is not associated with dementia. Moreover, late-life depression in remission has no effect on the incidence of dementia.
Thus, it is more likely that late-life depression is a biomarker and prodrome for dementia, rather than a risk factor; however, given differences in study design, this remains an undecided and important issue with respect to the efficacy of preventive measures.
Why this study matters
It has been estimated that there are 55 million people with dementia worldwide and the number is expected to triple in the next 30 years. Depression is thought to either be a risk factor or a biomarker for dementia, and as shown in the current study, depressive symptoms in the elderly nearly doubles the incidence of dementia.
Study design
Elderly patients (n = 6317) who were enrolled in the Health and Retirement Study and who had dementia and depressive symptom data were enrolled in the current study.
Depressive symptoms were assessed based on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) Scale. A score > 4 was considered significant depressive symptoms.
Results and conclusion
At the end of the 8-year follow-up period, elderly patients who progressed from mild depressive symptoms or had persistently high depressive symptoms were shown to be at an increased risk for dementia (HR = 1.86 and 1.74, respectively).
Original Source
Wei J, Yang C-H, Lohman MC, et al. Patterns of depressive symptoms over 16 years with incident dementia: The Health and Retirement Study. Journal of Psychiatric Research 2022; doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.10.064.