Depression is common among older people. Especially those who go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease, which lead to widespread speculation that it may be one possible cause for age-related dementia. However, a new study suggests that rather than being the cause, depression is an early symptom of dementia.
When researchers followed up with their 2,000 elderlyNew Yorkstudy participants, they found that depression accompanied memory decline but didn’t necessarily come first.
Researchers are now considering that depression and dementia go hand in hand.
Having memory problems that aren’t severe enough to be diagnosed as dementia is called MCI. Many who are diagnosed with MCI develop dementia, but not always. New research shows that those diagnosed with MCI and depression double their risk of developing full-blown dementia.
Though researchers are saying that depression appears only to accompany dementia, and not cause it, patients, and doctors, should take depression in the elderly seriously as this could be an early symptom of dementia.
This study reverses the previous thinking that depression was causing the memory issues. Many thought that if you treated the depression, the memory problems would go away, but researchers are finding now that this is not the case.
Those who are older, show signs of depression and have memory complaints should be evaluated for MCI.
It only makes sense that those who have memory loss would be more vulnerable to depression. This especially goes when MCI is in its early stages and people are realizing that something is not quite right, but don’t know what is happening. Knowing that things aren’t ok, but not understand what is going on with your body can easily send someone into a depression.
Doctors agree that depression may be related to memory decline, but still hold that it may be totally unrelated. One doctor resigns that now if a patient with no history of depression and no clear reason for it such as loss of spouse, child, ect., comes in, they will now consider cognitive loss as a possibility and perform the appropriate tests.
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