Chronic Psychological Distress and Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease in Old Age
Abstract
Clinical and pathological data from the Rush Memory and Aging Project were used to test the hypothesis that distress proneness is associated with increased risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). More than 600 older persons without dementia completed a 6-item measure of neuroticism, a stable indicator of proneness to psychological distress. At annual intervals thereafter, they underwent uniform evaluations that included clinical classification of AD and administration of 18 cognitive tests. Those who died underwent brain autopsy from which composite measures of AD pathology were derived. During a mean of about 3 years of follow-up, 55 people were clinically diagnosed with AD. In analyses that controlled for age, sex, and education, persons with a high level of distress proneness (score = 24, 90th percentile) were 2.7 times more likely to develop AD than those not prone to distress (score = 6, 10th percentile). Adjustment for depressive symptomatology or frequency of cognitive, social, and physical activity did not substantially change this effect. Distress proneness was also associated with more rapid cognitive decline. Among 45 participants who died and underwent brain autopsy, distress proneness was unrelated to diverse measures of AD pathology and was inversely related to cognition after controlling for AD pathology. The results support the hypothesis that distress proneness is associated with increased risk of dementia and suggest that neurobiologic mechanisms other than AD pat…
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Distress may hasten dementia.
“This study is consistent with others showing that distress may hasten dementia44.”
From Stress weakens prefrontal networks: molecular insults to higher cognition (2015) · cites this paper as [44]
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BackgroundSelf-citation
- Authors
- Wilson, R. S., Arnold, S. E., Schneider, J. A., Kelly, J. F., Tang, Y., & Bennett, D. A.
- Affiliations
- Rush University Medical Center (US)
- Rush University (US)
- Venue
- Neuroepidemiology
- Publisher
- S. Karger AG
- Published
- 2006
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 143-153
- ISSN
- 0251-5350 (ISSN-L)
- 1423-0208
- OpenAlex
- W2033220940
- Cited by
- 266
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 17
- FWCI
- 7.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Neuroepidemiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Aging (R01AG017917, R01‐AG17917, R01AG024480)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Aging and Gerontology Research
- Keywords
- Alzheimer's disease, psychological distress, neuroticism, dementia risk, cognitive decline, brain autopsy, Alzheimer's disease pathology, older adults, depressive symptoms, Rush Memory and Aging Project
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alzheimer Disease, Chronic Disease, Disease Susceptibility, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Neuropsychological Tests, Risk Factors, Stress, Psychological, Linear Models
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