Depressive Mood and Testosterone Related to Declarative Verbal Memory Decline in Middle-Aged Caregivers of Children with Eating Disorders

Abstract

Caring for children diagnosed with a chronic psychological disorder such as an eating disorder (ED) can be used as a model of chronic stress. This kind of stress has been reported to have deleterious effects on caregivers’ cognition, particularly in verbal declarative memory of women caregivers. Moreover, high depressive mood and variations in testosterone (T) levels moderate this cognitive decline. The purpose of this study was to characterize whether caregivers of individuals with EDs (n = 27) show declarative memory impairments compared to non-caregivers caregivers (n = 27), using for this purpose a standardized memory test (Rey’s Auditory Verbal Learning Test). Its purpose was also to examine the role of depressive mood and T in memory decline. Results showed that ED caregivers presented high depressive mood, which was associated to worse verbal memory performance, especially in the case of women. In addition, all caregivers showed high T levels. Nonetheless, only in the case of women caregivers did T show a curvilinear relationship with verbal memory performance, meaning that the increases of T were associated to the improvement in verbal memory performance, but only up to a certain point, as after such point T continued to increase and memory performance decreased. Thus, chronic stress due to caregiving was associated to disturbances in mood and T levels, which in turn was associated to verbal memory decline. These findings should be taken into account in the implementation of intervention programs for helping ED caregivers cope with caregiving situations and to prevent the risk of a pronounced verbal memory decline.

Psychotherapies for eating disorders: findings from a rapid review

“…Studies have shown that carers of patients with EDs can experience substantial distress, anxiety and depressive symptoms [ 63 , 226 , 241 ]; these are most prevalent among carers of individuals with AN [ 234 , 241 ]. These symptoms have been shown to lead to maladaptive behaviours and contribute to disorder maintenance in the patient [ 63 , 111 ], with higher perceived burden impacting successful implementation of therapy [ 186 , 281 ].…”

Is testosterone perspective available for neurodegenerative diseases?

“…Testosterone may have protective effects on neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) or depression [5]. It has been suggested that testosterone sustains neurogenesis and promotes synaptic density in the hippocampus, preventing adult brain from neurodegeneration [21]. Testosterone treatment in human subjects might modulate the balance between protective and degenerative processes, therefore, it maintains synapses and neurons [22].…”

“…All the studies remark the potential role of testosterone in neurodegeneration [14] and the translation of neuroprotective effects of testosterone into safe and effective treatments for neurodegenerative diseases are encouraging [10,21].…”

Post-Encoding Stress Does Not Enhance Memory Consolidation: The Role of Cortisol and Testosterone Reactivity

“…Moreover, apart from the aforementioned evidence, to our knowledge, no previous studies have investigated the testosterone response to an acute stressor and its effects on memory performance. Only two studies have investigated the testosterone response to a cognitive stressor (i.e., Rey Verbal Learning Test) and its effects on memory [ 35 , 48 ]. These authors reported a curvilinear relationship between testosterone levels and verbal memory performance in middle-aged women who were caregivers of offspring with autism spectrum disorder [ 35 ] and children with eating disorders [ 48 ].…”