Dementia is not a specific disease but is rather a general term for the impaired ability to remember, think, or make decisions that interfere with everyday activities.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia. Though dementia mostly affects older adults, it is not a part of normal aging.
Psychological distress refers to non-specific symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression.
High levels of psychological distress are indicative of impaired mental health and may reflect common mental disorders, like depressive and anxiety disorders
In a study from Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare in Helsinki, scientists found that self-reported psychological distress is likely a causal risk factor for subsequent dementia.
They examined the association of psychological distress with dementia.
The analysis included 67,688 people in the National FINRISK Study surveys (1972, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002, and 2007) with linked patient data to the Finnish Health Register for dementia and mortality.
The team found that psychological distress was strongly linked to all-cause dementia, with rates varying by distress type.
Other than for depressive mood, there were strong associations with psychological distress symptoms.
There were strong associations observed for all the symptoms and competing risks for death in both models.
After considering these phenomena, the researchers suggest that symptoms of psychological distress are etiological risk factors for dementia but only weakly increase the incidence of dementia in the presence of competing risks of death.
If you care about dementia, please read studies about how the Mediterranean diet could protect your brain health, and this antibiotic drug may effectively treat common dementia.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies about antioxidants that could help reduce dementia risk, and healthy habits could help lower dementia risk for people with diabetes.
The study was conducted by Sonja Sulkava et al and published in JAMA Network Open.
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