Depression Tied To Increased Risk of Alzheimer's Disease

According to a study published in the April 8, 2008, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, people who have had depression are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease (AD) than people who have never had depression.

Study author Dr. Monique M.B. Breteler, with the Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands, commented,

"We don't know yet whether depression contributes to the development of Alzheimer's disease or whether another unknown factor causes both depression and dementia... We'll need to do more studies to understand the relationship between depression and dementia."

This study showed people who had experienced depression were 2.5 times more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than people who had never had depression. The risk was even higher for those whose depression occurred before the age of 60; they were nearly four times more likely to develop Alzheimer's than those with no depression. 

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