CHICAGO: Researchers from Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands found that older people who developed increasingly worse depression were more likely to develop dementia, according to a new study.
Researchers examined 3,325 people older than 55, who had been followed as part of a population study since 1990. They measured the level of depressive symptoms and then checked to see whether those with signs of depression went on to develop dementia. They found that 21 percent of people whose depressive symptoms increased over time ended up being diagnosed with dementia. By comparison, only 10 percent of people with “low symptoms of depression” developed dementia.
The researchers explained that signs of depression may be an early signal that dementia is developing in the brain before the tell-tale signs of memory loss appear later on. They point out previous studies have suggested psychological changes can lead to depression, including one study that found that atrophy of the brain may trigger depression…