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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Temporal relation between depression and cognitive impairment in old age
— prospective population based study | | Author(s) | David J Vinkers, Jacobijn Gussekloo, Max L Stek |
| Journal title | British Medical Journal, vol 329, no 7467, 16 October 2004 |
| Pages | pp 881-883 |
| Source | http://www.bmj.com |
| Keywords | Depression ; Cognitive impairment ; Correlation ; Octogenarians ; Longitudinal surveys ; Netherlands. |
| Annotation | Depression and cognitive impairment often occur together in old age. However, the temporal relation is unclear. 500 people aged 85 in Leiden, the Netherlands were recruited for this study (part of the Leiden 85+ Study) and were assessed annually for 4 years for depression (Geriatric Depression Scale, GDS-15), global cognitive function (Mini-Mental State Examination, MMSE), attention (Stroop test), processing speed (letter digit coding test) and immediate and delayed recall (12 word learning test). At age 85, participants' depressive symptoms and cognitive impairment were highly significantly correlated. During follow-up, an accelerated annual increase of depressive symptoms was associated with impaired attention, immediate recall and delayed recall at baseline. In contrast, depressive symptoms at baseline were not related to an accelerated cognitive decline during follow-up. Caregivers should be aware of the development of depressive synptoms when cognitive impairment is present. However, the presence of depression only does not increase the risk of cognitive decline. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-041203204 A |
| Classmark | ENR: E4: 49: BBM: 3J: 76H * |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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