Professor Park Jongil's Team at Chonbuk National University Collaborates with Columbia University
Five-Year Follow-Up Study of 1,472 Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment
A study has found that older adults who experience depression and anxiety have a 1.4 times higher risk of developing dementia compared to those without such symptoms.
On May 30, a research team led by Professor Park Jongil from the Department of Psychiatry at Chonbuk National University Hospital announced these findings, which resulted from a joint study with geriatric psychiatry researchers at Columbia University in the United States.
The research team analyzed data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) cohort, tracking 1,472 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild Alzheimer's dementia for up to five years. The analysis classified patients into three groups: the "asymptomatic group" with minimal neuropsychiatric symptoms; the "apathy/emotional symptoms group," which included those with depression, anxiety, or apathy; and the "complex symptoms group," characterized by a combination of various neuropsychiatric symptoms. Among these, the "apathy/emotional symptoms group" accounted for 40% of all patients. Notably, this group experienced the fastest decline in memory and had about a 1.4 times higher risk of progressing from mild cognitive impairment to dementia compared to the asymptomatic group.
Professor Park's team explained, "We confirmed that in older adults with cognitive decline, the presence of neuropsychiatric symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and apathy leads to a more rapid decrease in cognitive function and a higher risk of progression to Alzheimer's dementia." They emphasized, "This study demonstrates that neuropsychiatric symptoms are not merely accompanying features, but important indicators that can predict the progression to dementia. In particular, if symptoms such as depression, anxiety, or apathy are present, the risk of developing dementia is significantly higher, making early detection and intervention crucial." The research team plans to further refine the classification of neuropsychiatric symptom types to develop tailored treatment strategies, and to investigate the mechanisms underlying dementia onset through studies linked to biological markers.
The findings of this study will be published in the June issue of "Biological Psychiatry" (IF 9.6), the most influential international journal in the field of biological psychiatry, under the title "Empirical Typology of Neuropsychiatric Symptoms and Their Associations with Diagnostic Conversion and Cognitive Decline in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease Patients."
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