Depression Health Center

Depression Linked to Alzheimer's Disease

3 Studies Show Depression, Dementia Link continued...

Geda is an associate professor of neurology and psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minn.

In an editorial published with the studies, Geda suggested several possible explanations for the observed link between late-life depression and dementia, including:

• Major depression may directly damage the part of the brain associated with learning and memory via inflammation or the release of stress hormones.
• Depression may be in response to early, but medically unrecognized, memory declines.
• Depression may act synergistically with biological factors that have been linked to dementia to cause cognitive decline.
• The same biological factors that lead to depression late in life also lead to dementia.

A major brain imaging study known as the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative may lead to new insights into the association between depression and dementia, Geda says.

If depression is a direct risk factor for dementia, treating more elderly people for depression could have a big impact, Saczynski adds.