Do you think "life is difficult"? Stop watching the show and go to the doctor! Study: Adults who develop depression at an early age are 73% more likely to develop dementia
If you suffer from depression too early in adulthood, might you be more likely to develop dementia in the future?
Depression is not only related to mental health. If you develop depression at a young age, will you be more likely to suffer from dementia in the future? A new study published by the University of California, San Francisco in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease points out that new statistical methods have found that developing depression earlier in adulthood increases the chance of developing cognitive impairment within 10 years in old age, making it more likely that depression will occur in adulthood. They are more likely to be at risk of dementia.
The University of California research team stated that depression is a prodromal symptom of Alzheimer’s disease in the elderly, so whether depression itself is an independent factor affecting the risk of dementia deserves more comprehensive research. They analyzed 15,000 subjects aged 20 to 89, divided their lifetime trajectory of depressive symptoms into three stages: youth, middle age, and old age, and analyzed the correlation between the trajectory of depressive symptoms and cognitive impairment.
The study found that overall, suffering from depression was associated with a 43% higher chance of developing cognitive impairment in later life. Moreover, it was found in 6,000 subjects that those who developed moderate or severe depressive symptoms earlier in adulthood were 73% more likely to develop cognitive impairment in old age, on average. Across life stages, increased depressive symptoms have been associated with increased odds of cognitive impairment.
Depression may cause stress hormones to damage the brain’s hippocampus and memory
Willa Brenowitz, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, said there are several mechanisms that may be related to depression’s increased risk of dementia. One of them is that if the reaction system of the brain’s central nervous system is overactive, it will promote the excessive secretion of stress hormones such as cortisol, thereby damaging the hippocampus related to storage and organization of memory. Brenowitz pointed out that relevant studies have found that hippocampal atrophy is related to depression, and that women’s hippocampal volume decreases faster.
The research team used the epidemiological “Depression Scale” (CESD-10) to assess the risk of depression among subjects and found that 13% of young people, 26% of middle-aged people, and 34% of the elderly had moderate or high depressive symptoms. . The research team claimed that although some subjects did not have longer health trajectories, the statistics basically fit a U-shaped curve, similar to age trends in other disease studies.
About 20% of adults suffer from depression. The more severe the symptoms, the faster the cognitive decline.
Brenowitz said that this study shows that more severe depression symptoms are associated with lower cognitive abilities and faster cognitive function decline. It is estimated that older adults with moderate or high depressive symptoms in early adulthood are likely to experience cognitive decline within 10 years.
Kristine Yaffe, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, said that about 20% of adults will suffer from depression in their lifetime. It is important to explore the role between depression and cognitive impairment. In the future, it is still necessary to explore various methods to diagnose depression. Research has confirmed the mechanism and relationship between the two. At this stage, depression screening should still be promoted as much as possible so that patients can receive appropriate treatment.
