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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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The vascular depression hypothesis
— the influence of age on the relationship between cerebrovascular risk factors and depressive symptoms in community dwelling elders | | Author(s) | B T Mast, A R Azar, S A Murrell |
| Journal title | Aging & Mental Health, vol 9, no 2, March 2005 |
| Pages | pp 146-152 |
| Source | http://www.tandfonline.com |
| Keywords | Cerebrovascular diseases ; Depression ; Symptoms ; Ageing process ; Living in the community ; Correlation ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | The vascular depression hypothesis argues that vascular disease can "predispose, precipitate or perpetuate" depressive symptoms in late life. Consistent with the broader vascular depression model, this study hypothesised that cerebrovascular risk factors (CVRFs) would demonstrate a stronger link in depressive symptoms in older age groups than among younger age groups. Path analyses were used to examine direct and indirect effects of CVRFs on depressive symptoms on four age groups: 50-64, 65-74, 75-84 and 85+. CVRFs and other comorbid medical conditions were highly predictive of health-related symptoms and mediated the four age groups. Health-related symptoms and limitations were strongly linked to depressive symptoms and mediated the influence of medical illnesses (both vascular and nonvascular) on depressive symptoms. However, CVRFs exerted a unique effect on depressive symptoms in the oldest-old group (85+), independent of health-related symptoms or limitations and other comorbid medical conditions. This study's findings support the vascular depression hypothesis, being consistent with prior work suggesting vascular disease may exert its greatest effect on depression in the context of increasing frailty. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-050426213 A |
| Classmark | CQ5: ENR: CT: BG: K4: 49: 7T |
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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