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Cognitive Impairment and Anxiety in Older Adults: Characterizations in a High Southern Latitude Population
Abstract
Objective. The study characterized the levels of anxiety and cognitive impairment of older people in the Chilean city of Punta Arenas, exploring possible correlations between both phenomena.
Methods. With a descriptive pilot design, 72 older people (60-87 years) residing in Punta Arenas were evaluated using the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) tests to measure anxiety and cognitive impairment, respectively.
Results. Women were found to have significantly higher BAI scores than men (9,0 vs 3,5; p = 0,025), without significant differences in MoCA by sex. BAI and MoCA total scores showed an inverse correlation. Those over 70 years of age had a greater probability of altered scores in BAI, and a non-significant trend in MoCA (OR: 2.43; p = 0.066). Men showed higher rates of cognitive deterioration than women, although without statistical significance.
Conclusion. Those over 70 years of age showed a greater probability of altered anxiety and a non-significant trend toward greater cognitive deterioration. The results underscore the need for specific interventions to improve mental and cognitive health in this vulnerable population.
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Background
In older people, a notable research gap exists regarding the intricate dynamics between frailty, seasonal sensitivity, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). This study aimed to determine the association between frailty, seasonal sensitivity, and HRQoL in older people from high southern latitudes.
Methods
A cross-sectional observational study was conducted. Frailty, seasonal sensitivity, and HRQoL measurements were self-reported by participants through questionnaires. A total of 118 older people were recruited from a local community. The participants were selected through intentional non-probabilistic sampling.
Results
The adjusted models showed a trend where lower education was associated with a higher risk of frailty (BF = 0.218). For frailty and HRQoL, we observed a trend suggesting that HRQoL decreases with increasing severity of frailty (BF = 1.76). In addition, we observed a linear effect based on the severity of seasonal sensitivity, meaning that older people with higher perceived severity report a proportional decrease in HRQoL (BF = 6.66).
Conclusion
Sociodemographic factors, such as lower education levels, have increased the risk of frailty. At the same time, frailty and seasonal sensitivity perceived severity were associated with a lower HRQoL in older people.
Anxiety disorders affect millions of people worldwide and present a challenge in neuroscience research because of their substantial heterogeneity in clinical presentation. While a great deal of progress has been made in understanding the neurobiology of fear and anxiety, these insights have not led to effective treatments. Understanding the relationship between phenotypic heterogeneity and the underlying biology is a critical first step in solving this problem. We show translation, reverse translation, and computational modeling can contribute to a refined, cross-species understanding of fear and anxiety as well as anxiety disorders. More specifically, we outline how animal models can be leveraged to develop testable hypotheses in humans by using targeted, cross-species approaches and ethologically informed behavioral paradigms. We discuss reverse translational approaches that can guide and prioritize animal research in nontraditional research species. Finally, we advocate for the use of computational models to harmonize cross-species and cross-methodology research into anxiety. Together, this translational neuroscience approach will help to bridge the widening gap between how we currently conceptualize and diagnose anxiety disorders, as well as aid in the discovery of better treatments for these conditions.
Cellular senescence is a biological aging hallmark that plays a key role in the development of neurodegenerative diseases. Clinical trials are currently underway to evaluate the effectiveness of senotherapies for these diseases. However, the impact of senescence on brain aging and cognitive decline in the absence of neurodegeneration remains uncertain. Moreover, patient populations like cancer survivors, traumatic brain injury survivors, obese individuals, obstructive sleep apnea patients, and chronic kidney disease patients can suffer age-related brain changes like cognitive decline prematurely, suggesting that they may suffer accelerated senescence in the brain. Understanding the role of senescence in neurocognitive deficits linked to these conditions is crucial, especially considering the rapidly evolving field of senotherapeutics. Such treatments could help alleviate early brain aging in these patients, significantly reducing patient morbidity and healthcare costs. This review provides a translational perspective on how cellular senescence plays a role in brain aging and age-related cognitive decline. We also discuss important caveats surrounding mainstream senotherapies like senolytics and senomorphics, and present emerging evidence of hyperbaric oxygen therapy and immune-directed therapies as viable modalities for reducing senescent cell burden.
Aims
Although seasonality has been documented for mental disorders, it is unknown whether similar patterns can be observed in employee sickness absence from work due to a wide range of mental disorders with different severity level, and to what extent the rate of change in light exposure plays a role. To address these limitations, we used daily based sickness absence records to examine seasonal patterns in employee sickness absence due to mental disorders.
Methods
We used nationwide diagnosis-specific psychiatric sickness absence claims data from 2006 to 2017 for adult individuals aged 16–67 ( n = 636,543 sickness absence episodes) in Finland, a high-latitude country with a profound variation in daylength. The smoothed time-series of the ratio of observed and expected (O/E) daily counts of episodes were estimated, adjusted for variation in all-cause sickness absence rates during the year.
Results
Unipolar depressive disorders peaked in October–November and dipped in July, with similar associations in all forms of depression. Also, anxiety and non-organic sleep disorders peaked in October–November. Anxiety disorders dipped in January–February and in July–August, while non-organic sleep disorders dipped in April–August. Manic episodes reached a peak from March to July and dipped in September–November and in January–February. Seasonality was not dependent on the severity of the depressive disorder.
Conclusions
These results suggest a seasonal variation in sickness absence due to common mental disorders and bipolar disorder, with high peaks in depressive, anxiety and sleep disorders towards the end of the year and a peak in manic episodes starting in spring. Rapid changes in light exposure may contribute to sickness absence due to bipolar disorder. The findings can help clinicians and workplaces prepare for seasonal variations in healthcare needs.
Background:
Mental symptoms have been shown to be associated with dementia. As the most common neuropsychiatric disorder, it is unclear whether and why anxiety increases the risk of cognitive progression in elderly.
Methods:
The aim of this study was to investigate the longitudinal effects of anxiety on cognitive impairment in non-dementia elderly and to explore the underlying biological processes using multi-omics including microarray-based transcriptomics, mass spectrometry-based proteomics and metabolomics, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biochemical markers, and brain diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). The Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) and Shanghai Mental Health Centre (SMHC) cohorts were included.
Findings:
Anxiety was found to increase the risk of subsequent cognitive progression in the ADNI, and a similar result was observed in the CLHLS cohort. Enrichment analysis indicated activated axon/synapse pathways and suppressed mitochondrial pathways in anxiety, the former confirmed by deviations in frontolimbic tract morphology and altered levels of axon/synapse markers, and the latter supported by decreased levels of carnitine metabolites. Mediation analysis revealed that anxiety's effect on the longitudinal cognition was mediated by brain tau burden. Correlations of mitochondria-related expressed genes with axon/synapse proteins, carnitine metabolites, and cognitive changes were found.
Interpretation:
This study provides cross-validated epidemiological and biological evidence that anxiety is a risk factor for cognitive progression in non-dementia elderly, and that axon/synapse damage in the context of energy metabolism imbalance may contribute to this phenomenon.
Funding:
The National Natural Science Foundation of China (82271607, 81971682, and 81830059) for data analysis and data collection.
Many individuals, both in the public and within the field of psychology, often perceive aging as a burden that negatively impacts intellectual and mental health. Our present study aims to challenge this notion by identifying the crucial components of positive mental health in later life. These components not only promote positive mental health but also actively contribute to it, even under difficult circumstances. To accomplish this, we first offer a concise review of well-being and mental health models that highlight the psychological aspects of flourishing in late life. We then introduce a psychological competence-based model for positive mental health, which aligns with the concept of positive aging. Subsequently, we present a measurement tool suitable for practical applications. Finally, we provide a comprehensive overview of positive aging, drawing on methodological guidelines and existing research findings concerning sustainable positive mental health in later life. We examine the evidence indicating that psychological resilience (the capacity to adapt and recover from adversity or stress) and competence (skills and abilities to effectively cope with challenges across various life domains) significantly contribute to slowing down biological aging processes. Furthermore, we discuss insights into the relationship between psychological factors and aging derived from research on Blue Zones (regions characterized by a higher proportion of individuals experiencing longer, healthier lives).
Physical activity can prevent many organic and mental pathologies. For people living in extreme southern high-latitude environments, weather conditions can affect these activities, altering their psychological well-being and favoring the prevalence of seasonal sensitivity (SS). This study aims to determine the relationships between the practice of physical activity, seasonal sensitivity and well-being in people living in high southern latitudes. A cross-sectional study was conducted , using the Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ), applying a psychological well-being scale, and determining sports practice according to the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the 370 male (n = 209; 55%) and female (n = 173; 45%) participants. The main results indicated that 194 people (52 ± 7.7 years) reported physical activity. High-intensity physical activity practitioners recorded a significantly lower proportion of SS. In terms of psychological well-being, an adverse effect was found between the Seasonal Score Index (SSI) and five subcategories of the Ryff well-being scale. In conclusion, those who perform high-intensity physical activity have a lower SS, and those who have a higher SS have a lower psychological well-being.
Adverse effects of psychological stress on physical and mental health, especially in older age, are well documented. How perceived stress relates to the epigenetic clock measure, DNA methylation age acceleration (DNAmAA), is less well understood and existing studies reported inconsistent results. DNAmAA was estimated from five epigenetic clocks (7-CpG, Horvath’s, Hannum’s, PhenoAge and GrimAge DNAmAA). Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was used as marker of psychological stress. We analyzed data from 1,100 Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II) participants assessed as part of the GendAge study (mean age = 75.6 years, SD = 3.8 years, 52.1% women). In a first step, we replicated well-established associations of perceived stress with morbidity, frailty, and symptoms of depression in the BASE-II cohort studied here. In a second step, we did not find any statistically significant association of perceived stress with any of the five epigenetic clocks in multiple linear regression analyses that adjusted for covariates. Although the body of literature suggests an association between higher DNAmAA and stress or trauma during early childhood, the current study found no evidence for an association of perception of stress with DNAmAA in older people. We discuss possible reasons for the lack of associations and highlight directions for future research.
Research on anxiety in oldest-old individuals is scarce. Specifically, incidence studies based on large community samples are lacking. The objective of this study is to assess age- and gender-specific incidence rates in a large sample of oldest-old individuals and to identify potential risk factors. The study included data from N = 702 adults aged 81 to 97 years. Anxiety symptoms were identified using the short form of the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI-SF). Associations of potential risk factors with anxiety incidence were analyzed using Cox proportional hazard models. Out of the N = 702 older adults, N = 77 individuals developed anxiety symptoms during the follow-up period. The incidence rate was 51.3 (95% CI: 41.2–64.1) per 1000 person-years in the overall sample, compared to 58.5 (95% CI: 43.2–72.4) in women and 37.3 (95% CI: 23.6–58.3) in men. Multivariable analysis showed an association of subjective memory complaints (HR: 2.03, 95% CI: 1.16–3.57) and depressive symptoms (HR: 3.20, 95% CI: 1.46–7.01) with incident anxiety in the follow-up. Incident anxiety is highly common in late life. Depressive symptoms and subjective memory complaints are major risk factors of new episodes. Incident anxiety appears to be a response to subjective memory complaints independent of depressive symptoms.
This study is intended to determine the frequency of seasonal sensitivity in a sample of a Chilean high latitude (extreme southerly) population, and its correlation with labor activities involved in several types of shift work, with variables of general adaptation. A total of 465 participants took part in answering questionnaires to measure seasonality impacts through SPAQ (Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire), subjective happiness (Oxford scale), social adaptation (Bell), and anxiety and depression (MASQE30). The principal results indicate that the frequency of seasonal sensitivity in this sample was high, in a moderate level near the upper limit, and this is considered to have a significantly negative impact on daily life. Regarding seasonal patterns, the most common effect was in the summer profile, suggesting that people perceive benefits with the increase in sunlight, which correlates negatively with happiness. The analysis according to work-shift shows differential profiles for each one. These results are discussed relative to the importance for development of public policies to further the physical and mental health of extreme-southern populations.
Several aspects of cognition can be affected after cold exposure, but contradictory results have been reported regarding affected cognitive domains. The aim of the current systematic review was to evaluate the effects of specific cold exposure on cognitive performance in healthy subjects. A systematic search was performed using MEDLINE (through PubMed), EMBASE (Scopus) and PsycINFO databases according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Inclusion criteria were healthy subjects exposed to a cold environment (either simulated or not) and cognitive performance related to cold exposure with an experimental design. The literature search identified 18 studies, eight studies investigated the effect of cold air exposure and ten the effect of cold water immersion on cognitive performance of healthy subjects. There were several differences among the studies (environmental temperature reached, time of exposure, timing, and type of cognitive test administration). Cold exposure induced in most of the experimental settings (15 of 18) an impairment of CP even before accidental hypothermia was established. The most investigated and affected cognitive domains were attention and processing speed, executive function, and memory. Gender differences and effects of repeated exposure and possible acclimation on cognitive performance need further studies to be confirmed.
RESUMEN
Desde 1948, la Organización Mundial de la Salud ha venido publicando un sistema codificado de causas de enfermedad y muerte bajo el nombre genérico de Clasificación Estadística Internacional de Enfermedades (CIE), con revisiones en profundidad cada 10-15 años. En su última versión, CIE-11, se utiliza una terminología para caracterizar la vejez como “períodos geriátricos inicial y final”, lo que implica una medicalización de esta etapa de la vida que ha generado confusión y polémica. En este trabajo se discute la nueva terminología propuesta a la luz del conocimiento actual en torno a la vejez y el proceso de envejecimiento, y su definición más aceptada. La CIE no solo clasifica las enfermedades sino también los períodos de la vida y los “problemas relacionados con la salud”, y la vejez por sí sola no representa un problema relacionado con la salud para muchos de quienes se encuentran en esta etapa de la vida. Desde esta perspectiva, es imprescindible cambiar o matizar el epígrafe “vejez” de la CIE-11 para que no se perciba como síntoma, signo o resultado clínico anómalo, e introducir términos que reflejen mucho mejor el estado de envejecimiento patológico. Entre los términos que gozan de un creciente soporte experimental y bibliográfico están “fragilidad” y “pérdida de la capacidad intrínseca”, que aportan mucha mayor precisión a la hora de definir la condición de la persona que no goza de un envejecimiento saludable.
Depression and anxiety are common and often comorbid mental health disorders that represent risk factors for aging-related conditions. Brain aging has shown to be more advanced in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Here, we extend prior work by investigating multivariate brain aging in patients with MDD, anxiety disorders, or both, and examine which factors contribute to older-appearing brains. Adults aged 18–57 years from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety underwent structural MRI. A pretrained brain-age prediction model based on >2000 samples from the ENIGMA consortium was applied to obtain brain-predicted age differences (brain PAD, predicted brain age minus chronological age) in 65 controls and 220 patients with current MDD and/or anxiety. Brain-PAD estimates were associated with clinical, somatic, lifestyle, and biological factors. After correcting for antidepressant use, brain PAD was significantly higher in MDD (+2.78 years, Cohen’s d = 0.25, 95% CI −0.10-0.60) and anxiety patients (+2.91 years, Cohen’s d = 0.27, 95% CI −0.08-0.61), compared with controls. There were no significant associations with lifestyle or biological stress systems. A multivariable model indicated unique contributions of higher severity of somatic depression symptoms (b = 4.21 years per unit increase on average sum score) and antidepressant use (−2.53 years) to brain PAD. Advanced brain aging in patients with MDD and anxiety was most strongly associated with somatic depressive symptomatology. We also present clinically relevant evidence for a potential neuroprotective antidepressant effect on the brain-PAD metric that requires follow-up in future research.
Background:
There is no evidence for the association of depressive symptoms with the sense of well-being of undergraduate medical students residing in high southern latitudes (HSL).
Aim:
To assess the frequency of depressive symptoms and its relationship with seasonal sensitivity and quality of life in medical students residing in HSL.
Material and Methods:
The Beck anxiety and depressive symptoms inventory, the seasonal pattern assessment questionnaire and the quality-of-life questionnaire of the WHO were applied to 102 medical students residing in Magallanes, Chile.
Results:
Fifty-two percent of respondents reported some degree of depressive symptoms. These symptoms were significantly associated with the seasonal pattern score (r = 0.432, p < 0.01). They were also inversely associated with parameters of physical health and psychosocial health (r = −0.567, p < 0.01 and r = −0.708, p < 0.01, respectively). There was also a correlation between depressive and anxiety symptoms.
Conclusions:
Depressive symptoms are common in medical students residing in HSL and they are associated with seasonal sensitivity and quality of life measures.
Stress and anxiety have intertwined behavioral and neural underpinnings. These commonalities are critical for understanding each state, as well as their mutual interactions. Grasping the mechanisms underlying this bidirectional relationship will have major clinical implications for managing a wide range of psychopathologies. After briefly defining key concepts for the study of stress and anxiety in pre-clinical models, we present circuit, as well as cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in either or both stress and anxiety. First, we review studies on divergent circuits of the basolateral amygdala (BLA) underlying emotional valence processing and anxiety-like behaviors, and how norepinephrine inputs from the locus coeruleus (LC) to the BLA are responsible for acute-stress induced anxiety. We then describe recent studies revealing a new role for mitochondrial function within the nucleus accumbens (NAc), defining individual trait anxiety in rodents, and participating in the link between stress and anxiety. Next, we report findings on the impact of anxiety on reward encoding through alteration of circuit dynamic synchronicity. Finally, we present work unravelling a new role for hypothalamic corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) neurons in controlling anxiety-like and stress-induce behaviors. Altogether, the research reviewed here reveals circuits sharing subcortical nodes and underlying the processing of both stress and anxiety. Understanding the neural overlap between these two psychobiological states, might provide alternative strategies to manage disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Background:
To investigate how social support relates to mental health problems for Belgian late adolescents and young adults 15-25 years of age. Additionally, we examine changes in mental health problems between 2008 and 2013 and investigate gender differences.
Methods:
Multivariate analysis of variance was used to investigate (1) psychological distress, (2) anxiety and (3) depression among 713 boys and 720 girls taken from two successive waves (2008 and 2013) of a representative sample of the Belgian population (Belgian Health Interview survey). Psychological distress was measured by the General Health Questionnaire, anxiety and depression by the Symptom Check-List-90-Revised.
Results:
Gender differences were found for psychological distress, anxiety and depression with girls reporting significantly higher scores than boys. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed that adolescents who are dissatisfied with their social contacts and experience poor social support reported more psychological distress, anxiety and depression. In addition, young adult boys (20-25 years of age) were more likely to experience psychological distress when compared to late adolescent boys (15-19 years of age). Finally, the prevalence of anxiety and depression increased substantially between 2008 and 2013 for girls and to a lesser extent for boys.
Conclusions:
Especially girls and young people with poor social support experience mental health problems more frequently than boys and those with strong social support. Improving social support among young people may serve as a protective buffer to mental health problems.
RESUMEN
Chile se encuentra en pleno proceso de transición demográfica y su población envejece rápidamente. Esta situación presenta múltiples desafíos de política pública, incluidos los del área de la salud pública. En concreto, la relación entre el envejecimiento y la pérdida de la autonomía exige diseñar con urgencia una política de cuidados a largo plazo en el país. El objetivo de este documento es describir el escenario actual de los cuidados a largo plazo en Chile usando la experiencia de los países de la Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económico, para poner de manifiesto la necesidad de avanzar en el diseño y el financiamiento de una política coordinada en el país, que permita afrontar con antelación los desafíos del envejecimiento en las próximas décadas.
Introduction:
Few studies have validated the Spanish-language version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-S) test in Latin American populations.
Objetive:
To evaluate the psychometric properties and discriminant validity of the MoCA-S in elderly patients in Santiago de Chile.
Methods:
172 individuals were grouped according to their clinical diagnosis based on the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) scale as follows: amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI; n?24), non-amnestic MCI (naMCI; n?24), mild dementia (n?20), and cognitively normal (n?104). Participants were evaluated with both the MoCA-S and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) to determine the discriminant validity of the MoCA-S.
Results:
Mean age and years of schooling were 73?6 and 11?4 years, respectively, with no significant intergroup differences. The MoCA-S displayed good internal consistency (Cronbach's ?: 0.772), high inter-rater reliability (Spearman correlation coefficient: 0.846; P<.01), and high intra-rater reliability (test-retest reliability coefficient: 0.922; P<.001). The MoCA-S was found to be an effective and valid test for detecting aMCI (AUC?0.903) and mild dementia (AUC?0.957); its effectiveness for detecting naMCI was lower (AUC?0.629). The optimal cut-off points for aMCI and mild dementia were<21 and<20, respectively, with sensitivity and specificity rates of 75% and 82% for aMCI and 90% and 86% for mild dementia. The level of education had a great impact on scores: as a result, 2 points were added for patients with less than 8 years of schooling and one point for patients with 8-12 years of schooling (MoCA-S1-2). The MoCA-S1-2 showed significantly greater discriminant validity than the MMSE for differentiating aMCI from dementia.
Conclusions:
The MoCA-S1-2 is a short, easy-to-use, and useful test for diagnosing aMCI and mild dementia.
Background Anxiety disorders increase the risk of onset of several ageing-related somatic conditions, which might be the consequence of accelerated cellular ageing. Aims To examine the association between anxiety status and leukocyte telomere length (LTL) as an indicator of cellular ageing. Method Data are from individuals with current (n = 1283) and remitted (n = 459) anxiety disorder, and controls (n = 582) with no psychiatric disorder from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety. We determined DSM-IV anxiety diagnoses and clinical characteristics by structured psychiatric interviews and self-report questionnaires; LTL was assessed using quantitative polymerase chain reaction and converted into base pairs (bp). Results Patients in the current anxiety group (bp = 5431) had significantly shorter LTL compared with the control group (bp = 5506, P = 0.01) and the remitted anxiety group (bp = 5499, P = 0.03) in analyses adjusted for sociodemographics, health and lifestyle. The remitted anxiety group did not differ from the control group (P = 0.84), however, time since remission was positively related with LTL. Furthermore, anxiety severity scores were associated with LTL in the whole sample, in line with a dose-response association. Conclusions Patients with current - but not remitted - anxiety disorder had shorter telomere length, suggesting a process of accelerated cellular ageing, which in part may be reversible after remission.
Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Se presentan datos sobre la fiabilidad y validez de la adaptación española del Inventario para la Depresión de Beck-II (BDI-II; Beck, Steer y Brown, 1996), obtenidos con una muestra de 305 pacientes ambulatorios con diversos diagnósticos psicopatológicos según el DSM-IV. El coeficiente alfa de fiabilidad fue alto (alfa = 0,89). Las correlaciones con otras medidas autoaplicadas y heteroaplicadas de depresión fueron elevadas y significativamente mayores que la correlación con una medida de ansiedad, lo que avala la validez convergente y discriminante del BDI-II, respectivamente. Respecto a la validez de criterio, los resultados demostraron que los pacientes diagnosticados con un trastorno depresivo mayor tenían niveles de depresión más elevados, medidos con el BDI-II, que los pacientes de otros grupos diagnósticos, aunque no hubo diferencias con los pacientes con trastornos de personalidad. Finalmente, la validación factorial del BDI-II proporcionó una solución bifactorial (factor somático- motivacional y factor cognitivo) que coincide con la hallada en estudios previos. Se concluye que el BDI es un instrumento válido de detección y cuantificación de síntomas depresivos en pacientes, si bien su utilidad como herramienta para el diagnóstico diferencial de la depresión es una cuestión pendiente de investigación.
Objective:
To investigate the relationship between anxiety and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and whether it is mediated by perceived stress, at the population level.
Method and design:
In a longitudinal study of 368 adults aged 65+ from a population-based cohort, we annually assessed anxiety symptoms (GAD-7), perceived stress (PSS-4), and ratings on the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR®), where CDR=0.5 was operationalized as MCI. Examining data from three consecutive assessment waves, we first determined the associations between anxiety at the first wave with MCI at the third wave, and vice versa. We then used mediation analyses to determine whether the pathways in both directions were mediated by perceived stress at the second wave, adjusting for demographics and other relevant covariates.
Results:
We confirmed significant bidirectional longitudinal associations between anxiety and MCI. Perceived stress was detected as a significant mediator for both pathways between anxiety and MCI, explaining 37.1% of the total effect of anxiety on incident MCI while conversely explaining 27.1% of the total effect of MCI on anxiety.
Conclusions:
A bidirectional relationship with a two-year lag between anxiety and MCI was mediated through perceived stress. Clinicians should be sensitive both to potential consequent anxiety when patients present with cognitive impairment, and to potential incipient MCI when the presenting complaint is anxiety. Managing stress may help mitigate adverse outcomes. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Brain ageing is produced by various morphological, biochemical, metabolic and circulatory changes, which are reflected in functional changes, whose impact depends on the presence or absence of cognitive impairment. Because of brain plasticity, together with redundancy of the distinct cerebral circuits, age- related deterioration of the brain at various levels does not always translate into loss of brain function. However, when the damage exceeds certain thresholds, there is age-related cognitive impairment, which increases the risk of developing various neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer disease. Genetics, together with lifestyle, diet, and environmental factors, etc, can trigger the development of these diseases, which provoke cognitive impairment. This article discusses the most important age-related changes in the brain, as well as the pathophysiological foundations of cognitive impairment.
Copyright © 2016 Sociedad Española de Geriatría y Gerontología. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.
Estrategias de evaluación e intervención
- A T Beck
- D A Clark
Ansiedad: conceptualizaciones actuales. Summa Psicológica UST
- Díaz Kuaik
- I Iglesia
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