In a new study from Emory University, researchers confirmed a strong link between depression and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive dementia that affects nearly 6 million Americans.
They found common genetic factors in both depression and AD.
Importantly, the researchers found that depression played a causal role in AD development, and those with worse depression experienced a faster decline in memory.
The study raises the possibility that there are genes that contribute to both illnesses. While the shared genetic basis is small, the findings suggest a potential causal role of depression on dementia.
The team performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS), a technique that scans the entire genome for areas of commonality associated with particular conditions.
The GWAS identified 28 brain proteins and 75 transcripts—the messages that encode proteins—that were associated with depression.
Among those, 46 transcripts and 7 proteins were also associated with symptoms of AD.
The data suggest a shared genetic basis for the two diseases, which may drive the increased risk for AD associated with depression.
This study reveals a link between depression and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia at the genetic level.
This is important because it may explain, at least in part, the well-established epidemiologic association between depression and a higher risk for dementia.
The team says this does not mean that if one has an episode of depression that dementia is an inevitable result.
Instead, it suggests that ineffectively treated depression may aggravate the biology of Alzheimer’s disease, potentially hastening the onset of symptoms and increasing the rate of functional decline.
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The study is published in Biological Psychiatry and was conducted by Aliza Wingo et al.
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