title: Neurological signs and late-life depressive symptoms in a community population: the ESPRIT study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Depression in the elderly is common and often resistant to treatment. It has been suggested that late-life depression may be related to underlying neurobiological changes. However, these observations are derived from diverse clinical samples and as yet have not been confirmed in a more representative population study. Our aim was to investigate associations between neurological signs as markers of underlying brain dysfunction and caseness for depression in an elderly community sample, controlling for physical health and comorbid/past neurological disorders.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional analysis of 2102 older people without dementia from the ESPRIT project. Depressive symptomatology was ascertained using the CES-D and abnormal neurological signs/comorbidity from a full neurological examination according to ICD-10 criteria.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Pyramidal, extrapyramidal, cranial nerve and sensory deficit signs were significantly associated with case-level depressive symptoms. However, all odds ratios were close to null values in participants who did not have previous neurological disorder.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We confirmed previous findings of an association between neurological signs and case-level depressive symptoms in late life. However, this association may simply reflect the impact of more severe comorbid neurological disorder.
authors.affiliation: King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK.
authors.forename: Mishael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Soremekun
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Stewart
authors.forename: Florence
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Portet
authors.forename: Sylvaine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Artero
authors.forename: Marie-Laure
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Ancelin
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ritchie
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009460:Neurologic Examination; D015995:Prevalence