Amyloid burden and incident depressive symptoms in cognitively normal older adults

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry

Publisher

John Wiley and Sons

School

Centre of Excellence for Alzheimer's Disease Research and Care / School of Medical and Health Sciences

RAS ID

22791

Comments

Harrington, K., Gould, E., Lim, Y., Ames, D., Pietrzak, R., Rembach, A., . . . Maruff, P. (2017). Amyloid burden and incident depressive symptoms in cognitively normal older adults. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. 32(4), 455-463. https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.4489

Abstract

Objective

Several studies have reported that non-demented older adults with clinical depression show changes in amyloid-β (Aβ) levels in blood, cerebrospinal fluid and on neuroimaging that are consistent with those observed in patients with Alzheimer's disease. These findings suggest that Aβ may be one of the mechanisms underlying the relation between the two conditions. We sought to determine the relation between elevated cerebral Aβ and the presence of depression across a 54-month prospective observation period.

Methods

Cognitively normal older adults from the Australian Imaging Biomarkers and Lifestyle study who were not depressed and had undergone a positron emission tomography scan to classify them as either high Aβ (n = 81) or low Aβ (n  = 278) participated. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Geriatric Depression Scale — Short Form at 18-month intervals over 54 months.

Results

Whilst there was no difference in probable depression between groups at baseline, incidence was 4.5 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.3–16.4) times greater within the high Aβ group (9%) than the low Aβ group (2%) by the 54-month assessment.

Conclusions

Results of this study suggest that elevated Aβ levels are associated with a 4.5-fold increased likelihood of developing clinically significant depressive symptoms on follow-up in preclinical Alzheimer's disease. This underscores the importance of assessing, monitoring and treating depressive symptoms in older adults with elevated Aβ.

DOI

10.1002/gps.4489

Access Rights

subscription content

Link to Full Text

Share

 
COinS