Depressive symptoms, cognitive decline, and risk of AD in older persons.
BACKGROUND
Cross-sectional and retrospective case-control studies suggest an association of depression symptoms with cognitive impairment and AD, but there have been few prospective studies and their results have been inconsistent.


METHODS
Participants are Catholic clergy members who were aged > or =65 years and who did not have clinical evidence of AD. During a 7-year period, they underwent annual clinical evaluations that included clinical classification of AD and detailed cognitive function testing from which global and specific measures of cognition were derived. Number of depressive symptoms was assessed at baseline with a modified, 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). The association of CES-D score with incident AD, using proportional hazards models, and cognitive decline, using random effects models, was examined.


RESULTS
At baseline, participants reported an average of about one depressive symptom on the CES-D scale (range, 0 to 8). During the 7 years of follow-up, 108 persons developed AD. In analyses that controlled for selected demographic and clinical variables including baseline level of cognitive function, CES-D score was associated with both risk of AD and rate of cognitive decline. For each depressive symptom, risk of developing AD increased by an average of 19%, and annual decline on a global cognitive measure increased by an average of 24%.


CONCLUSIONS
The results raise the possibility that depressive symptoms in older persons may be associated with risk of developing AD.
Wilson
Robert S
RS
Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center and Rush Institute for Healthy Aging, Department of Neurological Sciences, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, 1645 West Jackson Boulevard, Suite 675, Chicago, IL 60612, USA. rwilson@rush.edu
Barnes
L L
LL
Mendes de Leon
C F
CF
Aggarwal
N T
NT
Schneider
J S
JS
Bach
J
J
Pilat
J
J
Beckett
L A
LA
Arnold
S E
SE
Evans
D A
DA
Bennett
D A
DA
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis