New research has associated depressive symptoms in midlife, or late in life, with an increased risk of developing dementia.
According to research, appearing in the current issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, depressive symptoms that occur from midlife are associated with an increased risk of developing vascular dementia, while symptoms that occur in late life only are more likely to be early signs of Alzheimer's disease.
Researchers at the University of California at San Francisco and healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente, explained that vascular dementia, the second most common type of dementia, develops when impaired blood flow to parts of the brain deprives cells of nutrients and oxygen.
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"The findings have important public health implications because they raise hope that adequate treatment of depression in midlife may reduce dementia risk, particularly vascular dementia, later in life," said Rachel Whitmer, PhD, a research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research and the principal investigator of the study, in a statement.
The results comes from a study of more than 13,000 long-term members of the Kaiser Permanente Northern California integrated care delivery system, examining the association between depressive symptoms and dementia over the course of 45 years.
Participants were evaluated for depressive symptoms in midlife and again in late life between 1994-2000.