Psychological Distress Increases Dementia Risk
Distress can increase levels of stress hormones and neuroinflammation. Sonja Sulkava, MD, PhD found that "Animal studies have clearly shown that chronic stress increases the neuropathology of memory disorders" as occurs, for example, in Alzheimer's disease. It was also noted that psychological distress can be closely related to insomnia, which can also increase risk for memory disorders.
Follow-up
The investigators analyzed information from the National FINRISK Study, a Finnish health and risk factor study in which data from random samples of Finnish inhabitants residing in different areas of the country were collected every 5 years between 1972 and 2007.
Participants answered questions about their levels of stress, depressive mood, nervousness, and exhaustion over the past month. Follow-up continued until death, diagnosis of dementia, or end of year 2017. This information came from the Finnish Hospital Discharge register, the Causes of Death Register, and the Drug Reimbursement Register.
Among nearly 68,000 participants, about 8000 received a diagnosis of dementia over a mean follow-up of 25 years. However, many participants (19,600) died before they could be assessed for dementia, the investigators note. The mean age at the time of death without dementia was 71 years; the mean age at onset of dementia was 79 years.
Yoram Barak, MD, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, agreed. "These findings suggest that to solve the conundrum surrounding the association of depression and anxiety with risk of dementia, we need to look into the enduring patterns of perceiving the internal and external environment over long periods and through phases of the lifecycle," Barak writes.
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