Timely treatment of depression could reduce the risk of dementia
the course of ineffectively treated depression carries significant medical risk.
Depression has long been associated with an increased risk of dementia, and now a new study provides evidence that timely treatment of depression could lower the risk of dementia in specific groups of patients. Over 55 million people worldwide live with dementia, a disabling neurocognitive condition that mainly affects older adults. No effective treatment for dementia exists but identifying ways to help minimize or prevent dementia would help to lessen the burden of the disease. The study, led by Jin-Tai Yu, MD, PhD, Huashan Hospital, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, and Wei Cheng, PhD, Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, China, appears in Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier. Professor Yu and Professor Cheng used data collected by the UK Biobank, a population-based cohort of over 500,000 participants. The current study included more than 350,000 participants, including 46,280 participants with depression. During the course of the study, 725 of the depressed patients developed dementia. Previous studies examining whether depression therapies such as pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy could lower the risk for dementia produced mixed results, leaving the question unresolved. "Older individuals appear to experience different depression patterns over time," said Professor Yu. "Therefore, intra-individual variability in symptoms might confer different risk of dementia as well as heterogeneity in effectiveness of depression treatment in relation to dementia prevention." To address that heterogeneity, the researchers then categorized participants into one of four courses of depression: increasing course, in which mild initial symptoms steadily increase; decreasing course, starting with moderate- or high-severity symptoms but subsequently decreasing; chronically high course of ongoing severe depressive symptoms; and chronically low course, where mild or moderate depressive symptoms are consistently maintained. As expected, the study found that depression elevated the risk of dementia – by a striking 51% compared to non-depressed participants. However, the degree of risk depended on the course of depression; those with increasing, chronically high, or chronically low course depression were more vulnerable to dementia, whereas those with decreasing course faced no greater risk than participants without depression. The researchers most wanted to know whether the increased risk for dementia could be lowered by receiving depression treatment. Overall, depressed participants who received treatment had reduced risk of dementia compared to untreated participants by about 30%. When the researchers separated the participants by depression course, they saw that those with increasing and chronically low courses of depression saw lower risk of dementia with treatment, but those with a chronically high course saw no benefit of treatment in terms of dementia risk. He notes that, "in this case, symptomatic depression increases dementia risk by 51%, whereas treatment was associated with a significant reduction in this risk." "This indicates that timely treatment of depression is needed among those with late-life depression," added Professor Cheng. "Providing depression treatment for those with late-life depression might not only remit affective symptoms but also postpone the onset of dementia." "The new findings shed some light on previous work as well," said Professor Cheng. "The differences of effectiveness across depression courses might explain the discrepancy between previous studies." Journal reference: Yang, L., et al. (2022) Depression, Depression Treatments, and Risk of Incident Dementia: A Prospective Cohort Study of 354,313 Participants. Biological Psychiatry. doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2022.08.026. Link: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20221017/Timely-treatment-of-depression-could-reduce-the-risk-of-dementia.aspx
People who experience dementia during depression can reduce this neurodegenerative disease with medication and psychotherapy
This psychological process is more likely to develop in older people and also makes it harder to work psychologically
Timely treatment of depression in the middle of the year they experience depression is much more important and necessary than other people.
It was very complete and informative. Master. Other causes of dementia include stroke, peak disease and unhealthy but famous diseases such as cow madness.
I didn’t know this until we read it and thank you very much, now depression is more common in the elderly.
I didn’t know this until I found out, now depression is more common in the elderly
Dementia, in medicine and psychiatry, is a chronic and sometimes acute disorder of mental processes and progressive neurological deterioration, which is associated with personality change, situational awareness, and impaired memory, judgment, and thought. The most important type of them is senile dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.
Dementia, in medicine and psychiatry, is a chronic and sometimes acute disorder of mental processes and progressive neurological deterioration, which is associated with personality change, situational awareness, and impaired memory, judgment, and thought. The most important type of them is senile dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.
Depression, according to Dr. Carrick Sawchuk of the Mayo Clinic, is a mood disorder that causes feelings of sadness and loss of interest in a person. It affects normal behavior and activity and produces emotional and physical problems.
The symptoms of depression are feelings of sadness, emptiness, despair, anger, irritability, sleep disorder, fatigue, lack of energy, lack of appetite, weight loss, anxiety, mental and physical slowness, suicidal thoughts, etc. in a person.
According to some psychiatrists, dementia has been seen in depressed patients with long-term use of medication.
In the elderly, the symptoms of depression may be slightly different, which means they may be less visible. Often, memory problems and personality changes and physical pains, sexual relationship problems, lack of sleep, lack of movement and low socializing are associated with depression and physical and mental conditions appear together.
Treatment of depression postpones the risk of dementia and improves the communication and emotional conditions of the elderly.
Regarding the causes of depression, biological differences in the brain, differences in the chemical activity of the brain and transmission nerves, hormonal changes, and heredity have been mentioned.
Hello, Your article made me think that due to the prevalence of depression among young people, the risk of dementia may increase in old age.
Hello, dear teacher. Your article made me think that due to the prevalence of depression among young people, the risk of dementia may increase in old age.
hi dear dr malihi ,
your article really hepl people and me thank you for these topics.
hi sir ,
in my opinion depression is a very big problem in our comunities and this article helps us a lot to have informations about depression.
Hello dear professor Your content and the topics you discuss are really great. And even according to Professor Yu, depression is really more in the elderly?