Amyloid burden and incident depressive symptoms in preclinical Alzheimer’s disease
Authors
Stephanie Perin
Karra D. Harrington
Lim Yen Ying
Kathryn Ellis
David Ames
Robert H. Pietrzak
Adrian Schembri
Stephanie Rainey-Smith, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Olivier Salvado
Simon M. LawsFollow
Ralph N. Martins, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Victor L. Villemagne
Christopher C. Rowe
Colin L. Masters
Paul Maruff
AIBL Research Group
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
Journal of Affective Disorders
Publisher
Elsevier BV
School
School of Medical and Health Sciences / Centre of Excellence for Alzheimer’s Disease Research and Care
RAS ID
27577
Abstract
Background
Relationships between depression and Alzheimer's disease (AD) may become clearer if studied in preclinical AD where dementia is not present.
Method
The aim of this study was to evaluate prospectively, relationships between brain amyloid-β (Aβ), depressive symptoms and screen positive depression in cognitively normal (CN) older adults. Depressive symptoms were measured with the Geriatric Depression Inventory (GDS-15) in CN adults from the Australian Imaging Biomarkers and Lifestyle (AIBL) study without depression at baseline and classified as having abnormally high (Aβ+; n = 136) or low (Aβ−; n = 449) Aβ according to positron emission tomography at 18-month intervals over 72 months.
Results
Incident cases of screen positive depression were not increased in Aβ+ CN adults although small increases in overall depressive symptoms severity (d = − 0.25; 95% CI, − 0.45, − 0.05) and apathy-anxiety symptoms (d = − 0.28; 95% CI − 0.48, − 0.08) were.
Limitations
As the AIBL sample is an experimental sample, no individuals had severe medical illnesses or significant psychiatric disorders. Additionally, individuals who had evidence of screen-positive depression at screening were excluded from enrolment in the AIBL study. Thus, the current data can be considered only as providing a foundation for understanding relationships between Aβ and depression in preclinical AD.
Conclusions
These results suggest that the presence of a depressive disorder or even increased depressive symptoms are themselves unlikely to be a direct consequence of increasing Aβ. New depressive disorders presenting in CN older adults could therefore be investigated for aetiologies beyond AD.
DOI
10.1016/j.jad.2017.12.101
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Comments
Perin, S., Harrington, K. D., Lim, Y. Y., Ellis, K., Ames, D., Pietrzak, R. H., ... & Martins, R. N. (2018). Amyloid Burden and Incident Depressive Symptoms in Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease. Journal of Affective Disorders, 229, 269-274. Available here.