Diagnosed with depression, anxiety or PTSD? You’re more likely to develop early onset Alzheimer’s Disease, finds concerning new study
Living with common psychiatric disorders could ‘significantly’ increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease at a younger age, concerning research has suggested.
Studies have long linked depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) individually with an increased risk of dementia.
But in a new study, experts at the University of California have found that people with one or multiple of these mental health conditions were more likely to develop the disease at a younger age.
Alzheimer’s patients who also suffered from severe anxiety and/or depression were also found to experience cognitive decline at a much younger age than those without mental health issues.
On average, patients with depression, anxiety or PTSD were between 2.2 and 6.8 years younger at Alzheimer’s symptom onset, compared to those without the conditions.
When these conditions occurred together the prognosis was even worse, with having three or more mental health conditions linked to a nearly 8-year reduction in age at Alzheimer’s symptoms onset.
Experts labelled the findings important, but cautioned that given there were generational differences between the participants and mental health diagnostic labels were based on past medical history, it could not prove the conditions directly cause early onset.
Writing in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia, the researchers said: ‘These findings suggest that psychiatric conditions contribute distinctively to Alzheimer’s susceptibility, underscoring the importance of obtaining detailed psychiatric symptom assessments in individuals with neurodegenerative disease.
Studies have long linked depression , anxiety and bipolar disorder individually with an increased risk of the memory-robbing condition
‘There is an epidemic of depression, social isolation, and poor mental health among aging populations, and thus there is palpable urgency to better understand how mental health conditions interact with Alzheimer’s Disease.’
In the study, researches assessed the medical records of 1,500 Alzheimer’s patients, half of which had early-onset Alzheimer’s and half late onset—all from the UCSF Memory and Aging Centre.
Early-onset Alzheimer’s is when the disease occurs in someone younger than 65-years-old. Often, there is no obvious cause or risk factor to explain the phenomenon.
Participants were split into seven categories, those with: unknown onset of psychiatric symptoms, onset of psychiatric symptoms after first cognitive symptoms and those who had experienced mental health symptoms 0-10 years, 11-20 years, 21-30 years, 31-40 years, and more than 40 years prior to Alzheimer’s symptoms.
Just over 43 per cent of patients had a history of depression, 32.3 per cent anxiety, 1.2 per cent bipolar disorder, 1 per cent PTSD and just 0.4 per cent had a history of schizophrenia.
Significantly higher amounts of depression and anxiety were observed in patients with early-onset Alzheimer’s, with nearly 50 per cent of the cohort having a history of depression.
On average, these patients started suffering from Alzheimer’s two years earlier than those without the mood disorder.
Patients who had a history of anxiety tended to experience cognitive symptoms around three years earlier, and those with a history of PTSD were 6.8 years younger at onset of Alzheimer’s symptoms.
Significant clumps of both proteins can form plaques and tangle — and this is thought to be behind Alzheimer’s symptoms. Pictured, an Alzheimer’s affected brain, with abnormal levels of amyloid protein clumping together to form plaques
Suffering from just one mental health disorder was associated with a 1.5-year earlier onset, whereas having three disorder brought on symptoms almost 8 years earlier, compared to those in good mental health.
Writing in the journal, the researchers said whilst suffering from one or more mental health conditions could be a warning sign for early-onset Alzheimer’s, the relationship between the two disorders remains under researched.
However, they speculated that those with a history of poor mental health, such as anxiety or depression, may represent an anatomical vulnerability towards developing the memory-robbing disease.
Similarly, depressive symptoms have also been linked to inflammation in the brain which has been shown to be a key driver of dementia.
They concluded: ‘Taken together, we speculate that in some AD presentations, the presence and severity of depression and anxiety may reflect the outward manifestations of underlying neuroinflammatory processes, which could be targeted for therapeutic benefit.’
Latest statistics show that the number of people in the UK seeking help for mental illness has surged by two fifths since before the pandemic, reaching almost 4million.
It comes as a landmark study last year suggested almost half of all Alzheimer’s cases could be prevented by tackling 14 lifestyle factors from childhood—with almost a quarter of children in England now having a ‘probable mental disorder’.
Experts claimed the study, published in the prestigious journal The Lancet, provided more hope than ‘ever before’ that the memory-robbing disorder that blights the lives of millions can be tackled.
Around 900,000 Brits are currently thought to have the memory-robbing disorder. But University College London scientists estimate this will rise to 1.7million within two decades as people live longer. It marks a 40 per cent uptick on the previous forecast in 2017
Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common form of dementia and affects 982,000 people in the UK.
Recent analysis by the Alzheimer’s Society estimates the overall annual cost of the dementia to the UK is £42billion a year, with families bearing the brunt.
An ageing population means these costs – which include lost earnings of unpaid carers – are set to soar to £90billion in the next 15 years.
Memory problems, thinking and reasoning difficulties and language problems are common early symptoms of the condition, which then worsen over time.
Alzheimer’s Research UK analysis found 74,261 people died from dementia in 2022 compared with 69,178 a year earlier, making it the country’s biggest killer.
