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To examine how the core pathologies in Alzheimer disease could interact with depression to create cognitive impairment, investigators in China examined data on 721 nondemented adults (mean age, 62; mild cognitive impairment [MCI], 30%) and validated their findings in another sample of 725 people (mean age, 74; MCI, 59%).
In the first sample, higher depression rating scale scores within a subthreshold range (mild depressive symptoms [MDS]) were found to correlate both with lower Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores and, in cerebrospinal fluid samples, more cerebral amyloid deposition, but not tau phosphorylation. The influence of MDS on cognitive impairment was mediated in part by amyloid pathology, a relationship that was validated wi…