Using the Center for Epidemiology Depression Scale (CES-D) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale-Depression (HADS-D), the researhers found five different trajectories of depressive symptoms - low depression symptoms; initially high symptoms that decreased; low starting scores that increased then remitted; initially low symptoms that increased; and constantly high symptoms.
Researchers tell their study support the hypothesis that increasing symptoms of depression in older age could potentially represent an early stage of dementia. Report told that at the molecular levels, the biological mechanisms of depression and neurodegenerative diseases overlap considerably including the loss of ability to create new neurons, increased cell death and immune system dysregulation.
Erasmus University Medical Center says, "More research is needed to examine this association, and to investigate the potential to use ongoing assessments of depressive symptoms to identify older adults at increased risk of dementia."- According to Dr M Arfan Ikram