Presence of Major Depressive Disorder influences both neuropsychiatric symptoms and the cognitive profile in Mild Cognitive impairment and Alzheimers disease

ObjectivesThe diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is based on the DSM-V criteria and is established by a clinician. It allows quantifying depression based on clinical criteria. As such, MDD differs from other types of depressions quantified based on subjective scales. Here, we evaluated the MDD risk factor on other neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) as well as MDD association with cognitive performance in Alzheimers disease (AD), Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Healthy Controls (CH). ParticipantsData of 208 patients with AD, 291 patients with MCI and 647 HC was extracted from the National Alzheimers Coordinating Center database. Each included participant was assessed by a physician for the MDD criteria, underwent an evaluation of NPS using the NeuroPsychiatric Inventory, and a comprehensive cognitive assessment. Participants were classified in those with- and without MDD. We performed logistic regression and a MANCOVA models respectively with NPS and cognitive performance as variables of interest and MDD as fixed factors within each group. The MANCOVA was controlled for the effects of age, sex, and education. ResultsMDD increased the risk for psychotic, affective and behavioral NPS in MCI, and affective/behavioral NPS in CH and AD. Also, MCI with MDD had lower performance on selective attention and mental flexibility. ConclusionsMDD seems to increase the probability for a higher prevalence of NPS in all groups (CN, MCI and AD). This might suggest that early treatment of MDD could impact future neuropsychiatric symptomatology and cognitive performance.