title: Depressive symptoms in Alzheimer's disease and lewy body dementia: a one-year follow-up study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore the course of depression in people with mild dementia and identify predictors for depression at 1-year follow-up.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with mild dementia (n = 199) were assessed using Montgomery and Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) and the depression item from Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) at baseline and after 1 year. A score above 6 on MADRS indicates at least mild depression. Linear and logistic regression analyses were performed to identify predictors of change in depression scores.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among subjects with depression at baseline, 68.1% remained depressed at follow-up, whereas 31.9% had remitted, based on MADRS. Among patients without depression at baseline, 77.1% remained non-depressed at follow-up, whereas 22.9% had incident depression. The proportion with persistent depression was higher in the combined dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB)/Parkinson's disease with dementia (PDD) group (45.5%) compared to AD (28%) (p < 0.05). Greater decline on the Mini Mental State Examination (p < 0.001) and higher baseline MADRS score (p < 0.001) were significant predictors of increased MADRS score.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Two thirds of patients with depression at baseline were still depressed at follow-up, more so in DLB with PDD compared to AD. Cognitive decline was associated with worsening of depressive symptoms.
authors: Department for Geriatric Psychiatry, Psychiatric Clinic, and Centre for Age-Related Medicine, Stavanger University Hospital, Norway.
authors: Friederike
authors: F
authors: Fritze
authors: Uwe
authors: U
authors: Ehrt
authors: Tibor
authors: T
authors: Hortobagyi
authors: Clive
authors: C
authors: Ballard
authors: Dag
authors: D
authors: Aarsland
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D020961:Lewy Body Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male