Midlife Anxiety Could Signal Future Dementia Risk

Anxiety during midlife may be associated with an increased risk of dementia, according to a recent systematic review.

Researchers arrived at this conclusion following a search of Medline, PsycINFO, and Embase databases. For their review, they included studies that had measured clinically significant anxiety alone or after controlling for symptoms of depression, and had reported a mean interval between anxiety assessment and dementia diagnosis of at least 10 years.
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The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to perform methodological quality assessments.

Their search yielded 3510 articles, of which 4 (N = 29,819) were included in the present analysis. Ultimately, results revealed a positive association between clinically significant anxiety and future dementia.

“Clinically significant anxiety in midlife was associated with an increased risk of dementia over an interval of at least 10 years,” the researchers concluded. “These findings indicate that anxiety may be a risk factor for late-life dementia, excluding anxiety that is related to prodromal cognitive decline.”

“With increasing focus on identifying modifiable risk factors for dementia, more high-quality prospective studies are required to clarify whether clinical anxiety is a risk factor for dementia, separate from a prodromal symptom,” they added.

—Christina Vogt

Reference:

Gimson A, Schlosser M, Huntley JD, Marchant NL. Support for midlife anxiety diagnosis as an independent risk factor for dementia: a systematic review [Published online April 30, 2018]. BMJ Open. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2017-019399

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