Posted by djmmm on May 29, 2003, at 16:56:56
Depression Symptoms Linked to Alzheimer's Disease
By Dana Frisch
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) May 19 - Individuals who experience depression symptoms are more than twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's disease (AD) later in life than are family members without such symptoms, according to a report published in the May issue of the Archives of Neurology.
Moreover, this association was true even when depression symptoms occurred more than two decades prior to the diagnosis of AD, though the risk was reduced.
Those who recalled having bouts of depression symptoms 25 years earlier were 1.7 times more likely to develop AD compared with family members without these symptoms.
Lead author Dr. Robert C. Green, from Boston University School of Medicine, told Reuters Health that he was surprised to find the association stretched back 25 years prior to the diagnosis with AD.
These findings might indicate that AD is a "very different disease than we realize"--starting earlier in life and manifesting itself in more subtle ways when people are younger or middle-aged, Dr. Green said.
Alternatively, Dr. Green and his colleagues note that depression symptoms might be a "proxy for [a] lower neurological 'reserve,'" which slows or tempers the onset of AD.
Depression symptoms appearing within a year of onset of Alzheimer's, according to Green, are manifestations of the disease.
In the current study, the researchers analyzed data from 1953 AD patients and 2093 unaffected family members, focusing on the presence of depression symptoms, apolipoprotein E status, and other known risk factors, such as a history of head trauma.
When depression symptoms first appeared more than one year prior to the onset of AD, a 40% increase in the risk of AD was observed compared with when such symptoms were absent.
Dr. Green said that comparing patients with unaffected family members was particularly illustrative because they share many of the same genetic and environmental determinants.
"You can sharpen what the distinctions might actually be that put people at risk or give them protection," he added.
Arch Neurol 2003; 60:753-759.
from medscape
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