Study shows long-term depression can make people "stupid"

Tu Jintai, a professor of neurology at Huashan Hospital affiliated with Fudan University, and Tan Lan, a professor of neurology at Qingdao University City Hospital, found in a large clinical cohort study of 1,446 cases that persistent long-term depression (mild depressive symptoms) in older people not only leads to preclinical symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD), but also promotes AD pathology.
because mild depressive symptoms can further increase the risk of AD in later life by increasing amyloid protein (one of the main pathological features of AD) in older adults.
study was published recently in Biopsychotics.
, amyloid aggregation in the brain is one of AD's early pathological events, which can begin decades before dementia occurs.
The medical profession defines "minor depressive symptoms" as failure to meet the diagnostic criteria for "depression" if at least one depressive symptom occurs (e.g., low mood, decreased interest, or loss of pleasure, etc.) by reference to the internationally used Hamilton depression scale.
Traditional medicine has previously held that depression is not considered when the scale is less than 8 points, but less attention has been paid to the slow outcome of mild depressive symptoms (i.e., scores of between 1-7 points), especially its relationship with AD, and it is not clear to the medical community whether depressive symptoms can promote cognitive impairment by regulating the occurrence of AD pathology.
In response to this situation, the Tulip Tai team used the cable cohort (Chinese Alzheimer's biomarker and lifestyle study) and the ADNI cohort (the Alzheimer's Neuroimaging Program) to conduct an in-depth study of the relationship between mild depressive symptoms, amyloid proteins, and cognitive function.
results found that people with mild depressive symptoms continued to suffer from more severe cognitive impairment and higher levels of amyloid deposition in the brain compared to individuals with emotional health (subjectively unclaimed depressive symptoms), and the team's in-depth study found that depressive symptoms can negatively affect cognitive function to some extent by regulating amyloid levels, and found that depressive symptoms and amyloid levels in the brain can also promote each other to form a vicious circle that exacerbates cognitive impairment; Further studies have found that mild depressive symptoms can lead to an 83% increased risk of AD.
It is understood that this study supports the early clinical manifestations of AD preclinical symptoms, which can be used to find high-risk groups suitable for AD early intervention;
Tulip Tai and Tan Lan said, advocating that people pay close attention to the emotional problems of the elderly, such as the discovery of mild depressive symptoms, should actively intervene, through learning self-regulation, reasonable talk to relieve negative emotions and negative thinking, maintain a positive attitude, establish a positive psychological response methods and other measures to prevent or slow down the occurrence of AD is of great significance.
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