Mood, Anxiety Affect Alzheimer’s Risk for Women

New research finds that women who experience anxiety, jealousy, moodiness, or distress in middle age may be at a greater risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease later in life.

In a study of 800 women with an average age of 46, researchers from the University of Gothenburg in Gothenburg, Sweden followed participants for 38 years, who were given personality tests that analyzed their levels of neuroticism, and extroversion or introversion. The women also performed memory tests. Among this group, 19% developed dementia.
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Participants were also asked if they had experienced a period of stress lasting 1 month or longer in their work, health, or family situations, with “stress” defined as feelings of irritability, tension, nervousness, fear, anxiety, or sleep disturbances. Responses were categorized as 0 to 5, with 0 representing never experiencing any period of stress, and 5 meaning the respondent experienced constant stress during the last 5 years. Women responding in the 3-to-5 range were considered to have distress.

The study found that women who scored highest on the tests for neuroticism had double the risk of developing dementia, compared to those who scored lowest on the tests. However, the link depended on long-standing stress, according to the authors.

While being either withdrawn or outgoing did not appear to raise dementia risk alone, women who were both easily distressed and withdrawn had the highest risk of Alzheimer’s disease. For example, 16 of the 63 women (25%) who were easily distressed and withdrawn developed Alzheimer’s disease, compared to 8 out of the 64 women (13%) of those who were not easily distressed and were outgoing.

“[This study] found that a stress-prone personality (neuroticism) increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease,” says Lena Johansson, PhD, professor at the University of Gothenburg, and lead author of the study, noting that “the results should be seen in light of the our previous findings that midlife distress and number of psychosocial stressors increase the risk of Alzheimers disease.”

However, she adds, there are several possible explanations for the relationship between neuroticism and Alzheimer’s.

“Personality may influence the individual’s risk of dementia through its effect on behavior and lifestyle; e.g., individuals with low neuroticism more often have a lifestyle with healthier metabolic, cardiovascular, and inflammatory risk profiles,” says Johansson.

“It is important that primary care practitioners pay attention to symptoms of distress—sleeping problems, severe worries, psychosomatic symptoms, etc.—and consider [treating] these symptoms,” she says, adding that “future studies should examine the etiologic pathways for the associations and test whether this group responds well to interventions. It remains to be seen whether neuroticism could be modified, e.g., by medical treatment or through lifestyle changes.”

—Mark McGraw

Reference

Johansson L, et al. Can stress increase Alzheimer’s disease risk in women? American Academy of Neurology. 2014.