For my site evaluation, I briefly presented this article attached below titled “Depressive symptoms increase the risk of progression to dementia in subjects with mild cognitive impairment: systematic review and meta-analysis.” It was published by the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry on December 17^th, 2015, by Mourao et. al. This study was conducted with the objective of analyzing existing literature and determining if depressive symptoms increase the risk of progression to dementia in adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). It included 18 longitudinal studies, composing of 13 case control and 5 cohort studies. Over 10,000 subjects with MCI were included, and results indicated the relative risk of progression to dementia was 28% higher in those with depressive symptoms versus those without. This data may suggest that depression may be an additional risk factor for those with MCI to progressing to dementia. They propose the idea that depression may often be a risk to dementia instead of a reaction to the cognitive decline. While this study had many limitations, including great heterogeneity between the studies included, the discussion that comes from this study may give more motivation to treat depression early on, especially in those with MCI. More research should be done to see if depression treatment is effective in prevention of cognitive decline.

Int J Geriat Psychiatry – 2015 – Mourao – Depressive symptoms increase the risk of progression to dementia in subjects with