Anxiety Can Damage The Brain And Speed The Onset Of Alzheimer’s

April Flowers for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

A new study, led by the Baycrest Health Sciences’ Rotman Research Institute, has found that anxiety significantly increases the risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) converting to Alzheimer’s disease.

The findings, published online in The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, reveal that anxiety symptoms in patients with MCI increase the risk of a speedier decline in cognitive functions. This decline was observed independently of depression, which is another risk marker. The risk of conversion to Alzheimer’s for MCI patients with mild, moderate and severe anxiety increased by 33 percent, 78 percent and 135 percent respectively.

MCI patients who reported anxiety at any time over the follow-up period were found to have greater rates of atrophy in the medial temporal lobe regions of the brain. These areas of the brain are necessary for creating memories and have been implicated in Alzheimer’s.

Before this study, anxiety as a potentially significant risk marker for Alzheimer’s in MCI patients has not been isolated for a longitudinal study. These new findings could allow scientists a clearer picture of how damaging anxiety symptoms can be on cognition and brain structure over a period of time. Previous research has identified late-life depression as a significant risk marker for Alzheimer’s. Because anxiety is usually studied as a subset of depression by psychiatrists, it is not routinely assessed.

“Our findings suggest that clinicians should routinely screen for anxiety in people who have memory problems because anxiety signals that these people are at greater risk for developing Alzheimer’s,” said Dr. Linda Mah, clinician-scientist with Baycrest’s Rotman Research Institute, and assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.

“While there is no published evidence to demonstrate whether drug treatments used in psychiatry for treating anxiety would be helpful in managing anxiety symptoms in people with mild cognitive impairment or in reducing their risk of conversion to Alzheimer’s, we think that at the very least behavioral stress management programs could be recommended. In particular, there has been research on the use of mindfulness-based stress reduction in treating anxiety and other psychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer’s and this is showing promise.”

The study used data compiled from the large population-based Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). The team analyzed three years of data on anxiety, depression, cognitive and brain structural changes in 376 adults between the ages of 55 and 91. The patients all had a clinical diagnosis of amnestic MCI and a low score on the depression rating scale, suggesting that anxiety symptoms were not part of clinical depression. The patients were monitored every six months.

Scientists already consider MCI as a risk marker for converting to Alzheimer’s disease within a few years. Currently, doctors estimate that half-a-million Canadians over 65 years of age have MCI. Many of these are undiagnosed. The team cautions that not all patients with MCI will convert to Alzheimer’s — some will stabilize and others may even improve.

The new study, however, provides important evidence that anxiety is a predictive factor for determining if an individual with MCI will convert to Alzheimer’s or not.

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