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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Neuropathological correlates of late-life depression in older people | | Author(s) | Christos Tsopelas, Robert Stewart, George M Savva |
| Journal title | British Journal of Psychiatry, vol 198, no 2, February 2011 |
| Pages | pp 109-114 |
| Source | http://bjp.rcpsych.org |
| Keywords | Depression ; Biological ageing ; Evaluation. |
| Annotation | The study aimed to investigate the association between depression observed during life and neurofibrillary tangles, diffuse and neuritic plaques, Lewy bodies, brain atrophy and cerebrovascular disease found in the brain at post-mortem. 153 brains were selected for study from deceased individuals with no known history of dementia. Alzheimer and vascular pathology measures, Lewy bodies and neuronal loss were compared between those with and without depression ascertained using a fully structured diagnostic interview during life. Brain areas examined included frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital cortical areas as well as the entorhinal cortex, hippocampus and brain-stem monoaminergic nuclei. Depression was significantly associated with the presence of subcortical Lewy bodies. No association was found between depression and cerebrovascular or Alzheimer pathology in cortical or subcortical areas, although depression was associated with neuronal loss in the hippocampus as well as in some of the subcortical structures investigated (nucleus basalis, substantia nigra, raphe nucleus). The authors conclude that late-life depression is associated with subcortical and hippocampal neuronal loss but not with cerebrovascular or Alzheimer pathology. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-111115005 A |
| Classmark | ENR: BH: 4C |
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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