People who have had depression may be more prone to Alzheimer’s disease, two studies suggest. Dutch researchers found Alzheimer’s was 2.5 times more likely in people with a history of depression. Similarly, US researchers, examining Catholic clergy, found those with signs of depression were more likely to go on to develop Alzheimer’s. The Dutch study appears in the journal Neurology and the US study in Archives of General Psychiatry.
The Dutch study was small - 486 people over an average of six years, with just 33 people developing Alzheimer’s. But it found that people who showed signs of depression before the age of 60 were four times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s. Lead researcher Dr Monique Breteler said: “We don’t know yet whether depression contributes to the development of Alzheimer’s disease, or whether another unknown factor causes both depression and dementia.”
The findings were echoed in a second study by Rush University in the US. The researchers followed more than 900 members of the Catholic clergy for up to 13 years during which time 190 developed Alzheimer’s. They found that those with more signs of depression at the start of the study were more likely to develop Alzheimer’s. Researcher Dr Robert Wilson said: “Depressive symptoms may be associated with distinctive changes in the brain that somehow reduce neural reserve, which is the brain’s ability to tolerate the pathology associated with Alzheimer’s disease.” Read more…
Source: BBC News
Tags: Alzheimer's Disease
