Having difficulty concentrating or losing personal confidence in midlife may put a person at an increased risk of dementia, research suggests. A study of data from more than 5,800 Britons identified six depressive symptoms that could be “early markers of underlying neurodegenerative processes”.
Participants were asked about their health, including mental health, while taking part in the UK Whitehall II study. They were then followed for an average of 23 years, during which time 586 people developed dementia.
Analysis of the findings by experts at University College London (UCL) found six depressive symptoms “emerged as robust midlife indicators of increased dementia risk”.
These were:
- Losing confidence in myself
- Not able to face up to problems
- Not feeling warmth and affection for others
- Nervous and strung up all the time
- Not satisfied with the way tasks are carried out
- Difficulties concentrating
People who reported that they had lost confidence in themselves in midlife appeared to carry a 51% increased risk of dementia in later life. Those who said they were “not able to face up to their problems” had a 49% increased risk.
Reporting “not feeling warmth and affection for others” had a 44% raised risk while feeling nervous and “strung up” held a 34% rise in risk of dementia later in life.
Those who were not satisfied with the way tasks are carried out had a 33% increased risk of dementia more than 20 years later, while those who reported difficulties concentrating had a 29% elevated risk.
Study leader Dr Philipp Frank, from the UCL Division of Psychiatry, said: “Our findings show that dementia risk is linked to a handful of depressive symptoms rather than depression as a whole.
“This symptom-level approach gives us a much clearer picture of who may be more vulnerable decades before dementia develops.
“Everyday symptoms that many people experience in midlife appear to carry important information about long-term brain health.
“Paying attention to these patterns could open new opportunities for early prevention.”
Professor Mika Kivimaki, from the UCL Faculty of Brain Sciences, who leads the Whitehall II study and co-authored the paper, said: “Depression doesn’t have a single shape — symptoms vary widely and often overlap with anxiety.
“We found that these nuanced patterns can reveal who is at higher risk of developing neurological disorders.”
Commenting on the paper, Dr Richard Oakley, associate director of research and innovation at Alzheimer’s Society, said: “The connection between dementia and depression is complicated. It’s encouraging to see this new observational study begin to unpick how dementia and depression are interlinked.
“However, more research is needed to confirm whether these six symptoms also apply to women and ethnic minorities.
“It’s important to note that not everyone who has depression will go on to develop dementia, and people with dementia won’t necessarily develop depression.”
The findings were published in the journal Lancet Psychiatry.
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