Depression affects between 5 and 15% of older people. It could be an early sign of another common neurological disease.
Depression in older people might reveal something more worrying. British researchers analyzed the medical records of nearly 500,000 English people, and found that people who suffered from depression were more likely to suffer from dementia.
This link between depression and dementia was even more important as the dementia diagnosis approached. “The risk of depression increased steadily over the ten years preceding dementia diagnosis. This suggests that the onset of depression later in life should be considered as a possible early indicator of dementia,” the researchers said. Queen Mary University of London.
-This discovery, if confirmed by other studies, could make it possible to detect the disease earlier, and even prevent it by treating depression. It is in fact known that “depression increases the risk of developing dementia”, remind the British researchers. The risk would be doubled, and would be even greater after severe depression according to their analyses. A summary of studies published in 2021 concluded that “the risk of Alzheimer’s disease is increased by more than three in cases of depression”.
Depression would thus be “both a risk factor and an early sign of dementia” in the elderly, believe the authors of the study published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. The World Health Organization lists depression among the risk factors for dementia, alongside age, high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, social isolation and lack of health. physical activity. Alzheimer’s disease, the leading cause of dementia, affects 225,000 new people each year.
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