People who have chronic stress and depression are more likely to have mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s, according to a new study. The study did not say that chronic stress and depression, or a combination of both, could cause the cognitive ailments. The study appeared in Alzheimer’s Research and Therapy on Monday.
In the trial, researchers examined data from 1,362,548 people (696,551 were men). They were between 18 and 65 years old. Of them, 44,447 were diagnosed with chronic stress, depression or both between 2012 and 2013. Then the researchers looked at who was diagnosed with dementia, Alzheimer’s disease or mild cognitive impairment between 2014 and 2022.
Of the 44,447 people who had depression, chronic stress or both, people were 2.25 more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease if they had chronic stress, 2.32 times more likely if they had depression and 4.0 times more likely if they had both. People were 1.87 more likely to develop mild cognitive impairment if they had chronic stress, 2.85 times more likely if they had depression and 3.87 times if they had both. People with depression were 2.39 more likely to develop dementia if they had depression. It wasn’t significant if people had chronic stress or both depression and chronic stress, the study stated.
“It’s very uncommon for people in this age group [18 to 65] to develop dementia, so we need to identify all possible risk factors for the disease,” Axel C. Carlsson, a study author and researcher at Karolinska Institutet, said in a statement. “We show here that the diagnosis is more common in people who have suffered chronic stress or depression, but more studies will be required if we’re to demonstrate any causality there.”
“The risk is still very small and the causality is unknown,” Carlsson said. “That said, the finding is important in that it enables us to improve preventative efforts and understand links with the other risk factors for dementia.”
