Anxiety offers clues to Alzheimer’s
Research finds dementia symptoms 10 years early
Anxiety could be one of the early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, and it may manifest more than a decade before the illness strikes, according to researchers at Harvard University.
“We do think that anxiety and some other symptoms such as subjective changes in cognition can help identify people who are early in the disease course,” said Dr. Nancy J. Donovan, first author of the recent study and geriatric psychiatrist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
“It could be important for treating it and potentially slowing or preventing the disease process early on,” she added.
Researchers studied 270 men and women between the ages of 62 and 90, according to the study published yesterday in The American Journal of Psychiatry.
The participants were evaluated for anxiety and depression and were given brain scans to measure the amount of amyloid plaque found in the brain — a highrisk sign of potential for the disease that can be found more than 10 years ahead of memory decline.
Researchers found higher levels of plaque associated with worsening anxiety in otherwise cognitively normal adults, according to the paper.
“There’s quite a bit of debate in the field about this,” Donovan said. “This is not a definitive result, but it does strengthen the argument that neuropsychiatric changes might be associated with this amyloid.”
But Donovan cautioned that anxiety alone wouldn’t be enough to suspect impending disease.
“As a screening mechanism, it’s probably not sensitive enough,” she said, “but if you can measure multiple risk factors in the same individuals, then it becomes more useful.”
If further studies continue to support this finding, it could serve as a way to help single out at-risk people who warrant a closer look with brain imaging, said Jim Wessler, CEO for the Massachusetts and New Hampshire chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.
“This would be another tool to perhaps identify people who may be in that preclinical stage,” he said.
There are more than 5 million people in the United States living with Alzheimer’s — a progressive disease that robs people of their memory and mental functions — and it is the nation’s sixth leading cause of death.
Since 2000, deaths from Alzheimer’s have increased by 89 percent.
And though patients can be evaluated for Alzheimer’s
‘This is not a definitive result, but it does strengthen the argument that neuropsychiatric changes might be associated with this amyloid.’ — DR. NANCY J. DONOVAN geriatric psychiatrist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
by taking a thorough look at medical history and symptoms, there is no one diagnostic method available.
“We still don’t have easy biomarkers or blood tests,” Wessler said. “It might help indicate that there might be something more significantly wrong here. “