PERSONAL HISTORY OF DEPRESSION AND ITS APPEARANCE IN ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE

This review of medical charts explored the prevalence of personal history of depression in two groups of geriatric inpatients with current major depression. One group had concurrent Alzheimer's disease (AD) along with major depression, while the other had major depression without dementia. Patients with major depression and no dementia were nearly three times as likely to have had a depressive syndrome in the past compared to patients with major depression and AD. Most depressed AD patients were experiencing their first episode of depression. This suggests that AD may be a risk factor for the first lifetime occurrence of depression. While the pattern of specific depressive symptoms was similar between groups, patients without AD more often reported symptoms with a substantial cognitive element (eg thoughts of death, worthlessness) and patients with AD demonstrated more non-verbal manifestations of depression (eg tearfulness, sad face). A diathesis-stress model that takes into account the neuropathological and psychological concomitants of both depression and AD may be a useful framework for understanding how these two disorders influence one another.