Epidemiological data have long linked depression with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive dementia that affects nearly 6 million Americans. Now, a new study identifies 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 appears in Biological Psychiatry.
Co-senior author Aliza Wingo, MD, of Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, U.S., said of the work, “It raises the possibility that there are genes that…
