Depressive symptoms and cognitive decline in elderly people

Abstract

BackgroundDepressive symptoms are associated with cognitive decline in elderly people, but the nature of their temporal relationship remains equivocal.AimsTo test whether depressive symptoms predict cognitive decline in elderly people with normal cognition.MethodThe Center for Epidemiologic Study depression scale (CES – D) and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) were used to evaluate depressive symptomatology and cognitive functioning, respectively. A sample of 1003 persons aged 59–71 years and with a MMSE score of 26 or over was selected. Cognitive decline was defined as a drop of at least 3 points on the MMSE at 4-year follow-up.ResultsBaseline high levels of depressive symptoms predicted a higher risk of cognitive decline at 4-year follow-up. The MMSE score of participants with depression was more likely to fall below 26 at 2-year follow-up and to remain below at 4-year follow-up than the MMSE score of those without depressive symptoms. Persistent but not episodic depressive episodes were associated with cognitive decline.ConclusionsHigh levels of depressive symptoms, when persistent, are associated with cognitive decline in a sample of elderly people.

Consumo De Benzodiazepinas No Idoso Deprimido

“…Estes nossos resultados não corroboram com os estudos de Bourgeois e colaboradores (2015) que, ao explorar o impacto do consumo crónico das BZD´s sobre o declínio cognitivo de uma amostra de idosos institucionalizados constataram que, embora o funcionamento cognitivo dos sujeitos medido através do MMSE se deteriore ao longo do tempo, essa diferença não foi estatisticamente signi cativa entre os sujeitos que consomem BZD´s em relação aos que não consomem. Ainda assim, está bem patente na literatura que o uso prolongado de BZD´s constitui num fator de risco no aumento do declínio cognitivo em pessoas idosas (Bierman et al 2007;Moura, 2014;Paterniti, Dufouil & Alpérovitch, 2002;Zhang et al 2016) e, consequentemente, num aumento da incidência do desenvolvimento de perturbações neurocognitivas como a demência (Gage et al 2012;Gallacher, et al 2012), principalmente a Demência de Alzheimer (Rosenberg et al 2012). Paralelamente não foram encontradas diferenças signi cas entre o consumo de BZD´s e a sintomatologia depressiva medida pela GDS-15 (r pb = .118 , p<.528) e a sintomatologia ansiógena mediante os resultados obtidos GAI-SF(r pb = .130 , p<.486).…”

Cognitive decline and dementia in diabetes—systematic overview of prospective observational studies

“…Second, depression occurs more frequently in people with diabetes [73] and is difficult to differentiate clinically from dementia and early cognitive decline [74][75][76][77]. However, at least one of the studies [54] reported an association between diabetes and cognitive decline even after adjustment for depression.…”

The impact of early dementia on outdoor life

“…This was hinted at by one of the carer"s comments ("he needs to go out") and another who thought that if her spouse did not go out "he would get really depressed". It seems likely that a reduction in a person"s normal use of the outdoor environment can heighten the risk of depression that dementia already poses (Paterniti, Verdier-Taillefer, Dufouil and Alperovitch, 2002). …”