Abstract
BackgroundDepression is a common comorbid psychiatric symptom in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and the prevalence of depression is higher among people with AD compared with healthy older adults. Comorbid depression in AD may increase the risk of cognitive decline, impair patients’ function, and reduce their quality of life. However, the mechanisms of depression in AD remain unclear. Here, our aim was to identify neurometabolic characteristics in the brain that are associated with depression in patients with mild AD.MethodsThirty-seven patients were evaluated using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17), and divided into two groups: 17 AD patients with depression (D-AD) and 20 non-depressed AD patients (nD-AD). Using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, we characterized neurometabolites in the anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG) of D-AD and nD-AD patients.ResultsCompared with nD-AD patients, D-AD patients showed lower N-acetylaspartate/creatine (NAA/Cr) and higher myo-inositol/creatine (mI/Cr) in the left ACG. NPI score correlated with NAA/Cr and mI/Cr in the left ACG, while HAMD correlated with NAA/Cr.ConclusionsOur findings show neurometabolic alterations in D-AD patients. Thus, D-AD pathogenesis may be attributed to abnormal activity of neurons and glial cells in the left ACG.
Highlights
Depression is a common comorbid psychiatric symptom in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and the prevalence of depression is higher among people with AD compared with healthy older adults
Son et al [2] reported that AD patients with depression show decreased gray matter volume in the left inferior temporal gyrus compared with non-depressed AD patients
Given the known involvement of the anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG) in major depressive disorder (MDD) and AD, we examined its contribution to depression in AD patients, and hypothesized that metabolic changes would be observed in depressed AD patients
Summary
Depression is a common comorbid psychiatric symptom in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and the prevalence of depression is higher among people with AD compared with healthy older adults. Depression is a common comorbid psychiatric symptom in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). It is associated with cognitive decline in AD patients, and reduced quality of life in patients and their caregivers [1]. Lebedev et al [3] reported cortical thinning in left parietal and temporal brain regions in AD patients with depressive symptoms compared with non-depressed AD patients. Hu et al [4] reported significant correlation between depression assessed with the Neuropsychiatric
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