Six particular depressive symptoms, when experienced in midlife, can predict dementia risk more than two decades later, a new study led by University College London (UCL) researchers has found.<\/p>\n
Midlife depression has long been considered a risk factor for dementia in later life.<\/p>\n
However, new findings published in ‘The Lancet Psychiatry’ suggest that this relationship is driven by a small cluster of specific symptoms rather than by depression overall.<\/p>\n
These symptoms are:<\/p>\n
The researchers say focusing on these six symptoms when treating patients with depression in midlife may reduce their risk of getting dementia later in life.<\/p>\n
They also suggested that more research into this link is needed.<\/p>\n
Lead author Dr Philipp Frank (UCL Division of Psychiatry) said:<\/p>\n
Our findings show that dementia risk is linked to a handful of depressive symptoms rather than depression as a whole.<\/p>\n
This symptom-level approach gives us a much clearer picture of who may be more vulnerable decades before dementia develops.<\/p>\n
Everyday symptoms that many people experience in midlife appear to carry important information about long-term brain health.<\/p>\n
Paying attention to these patterns could open new opportunities for early prevention.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The study results<\/h2>\n
The researchers analysed data from 5,811 middle-aged adults who participated in the Whitehall II study, a British longitudinal cohort started in 1985 and funded by MRC and Wellcome.<\/p>\n
Midlife depressive symptoms were assessed in 1997 to 1999, when all participants were dementia-free and middle-aged (age 45 to 69, average age of 55), using a questionnaire covering 30 common depressive symptoms.<\/p>\n
Participants\u2019 health status was then tracked for 25 years through national health registries, with dementia diagnoses recorded up to 2023.<\/p>\n
During this period, 10.1% developed dementia.<\/p>\n
Time will tell<\/h2>\n
The long follow-up period allowed the researchers to investigate symptom-dementia associations stemming long before typical neurodegenerative changes emerge.<\/p>\n
The analyses showed that participants classified as depressed (those reporting five or more symptoms) in midlife had a 27% higher risk of subsequently developing dementia.<\/p>\n
However, this increased risk was driven entirely by the six specific symptoms in adults under 60.<\/p>\n
In particular, loss of self-confidence and difficulty coping with problems were each associated with a roughly 50% increased risk of dementia.<\/p>\n
Why it matters<\/h2>\n
The researchers note that symptoms such as loss of self-confidence, difficulty coping with problems, and poor concentration can lead to reduced social engagement and fewer cognitively stimulating experiences.<\/p>\n
Both are important for maintaining your brain’s ability to cope with damage or disease, allowing you to maintain normal thinking and function even when the brain is physically affected.<\/p>\n
In contrast, other depressive symptoms, including sleep problems, suicidal ideation, or low mood, showed no meaningful association with dementia in the long term.<\/p>\n
Targeting depression before\u00a0it\u00a0arises<\/h2>\n
Professor Mika Kivim\u00e4ki (UCL Faculty of Brain Sciences), who leads the Whitehall II study and co-authored the paper, said:<\/p>\n
Depression doesn\u2019t have a single shape.<\/p>\n
Symptoms vary widely and often overlap with anxiety.<\/p>\n
We found that these nuanced patterns can reveal who is at higher risk of developing neurological disorders.<\/p>\n
This brings us closer to more personalised and effective mental health treatments.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Opening new lines of investigation<\/h2>\n
Professor Gill Livingston (UCL Division of Psychiatry), chair of the Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, intervention and care, who is also one of the co-authors of the study, said:<\/p>\n
This is a new\u202fand important way of considering depression and dementia, and it is more evidence that depression is a wide umbrella and not necessarily one illness.<\/p>\n
There is some limited evidence that treating depression in midlife might reduce later dementia risk, but further research is needed to better understand how best to reduce dementia risk.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The researchers also acknowledge that more research across different populations is still needed to confirm how widely these findings apply.<\/p>\n
A mandate for further research<\/h2>\n
Dr Richard Oakley, Associate Director of Research and Innovation at Alzheimer\u2019s Society, said:<\/p>\n
Dementia is the UK\u2019s biggest killer and one in three people born today will go on to develop the condition.<\/p>\n
The Lancet Commission, part-funded by Alzheimer\u2019s Society, has previously identified depression as a midlife risk for dementia.<\/p>\n
The connection between dementia and depression is complicated. It\u2019s encouraging to see this new observational study begin to unpick how dementia and depression are interlinked.<\/p>\n
However, more research is needed to confirm whether these six symptoms also apply to women and ethnic minorities.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s important to note that not everyone who has depression will go on to develop dementia, and people with dementia won\u2019t necessarily develop depression.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This study was conducted by an international research team including scientists from UCL, Inserm (France) and University of Helsinki (Finland).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":180807,"template":"","categories":[53,562],"tags":[],"wf_news_folders":[],"class_list":["post-180773","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mrc","category-st4-securing-better-health"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ukri.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/180773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ukri.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ukri.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukri.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/180773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180831,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukri.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/180773\/revisions\/180831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukri.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ukri.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukri.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukri.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180773"},{"taxonomy":"wf_news_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukri.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_news_folders?post=180773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}