How does having depression factor in to whether or not you will have dementia/alzheimer’s/altered mental status later in life?

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How does having depression factor in to whether or not you will have dementia/alzheimer’s/altered mental status later in life?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

The short answer is that we don’t know. There is no obvious mechanism, there is only a documented correlation between these illnesses.

We think depression is caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. Do these imbalances cause irreversible damage that then slowly progresses to cause dementia? Maybe. Does treatment for depression cause dementia? Maybe. Does depression ruin people’s lives from a socioeconomic standpoint, and those with ruined lives are more likely to become demented? Maybe. Is there some common condition that causes depression and dementia to manifest in the same person at different times? Maybe!!

Medicine has figured out these two things are linked. We haven’t figured out exactly how they’re linked yet.