How Depression can Speed Up the Brain's Aging Process

Depression is a mental disease in which the person suffers from a bad mood and disaffection from the activity affecting the behavior and feelings of the person. 
The person feels sadness, anxiety, despair, irritability, anger, loss of appetite or excessive eating,  concentration problems. and a loss of interest in the activities he enjoys. 
Depression causes structural differences in the brain in older people, leading to memory loss and brain aging.

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Depression speeds up the brain's aging process 

How Depression can Speed Up the Brain's Aging Process 

Depression and brain aging process

Depression causes structural differences in the brain in older people, leading to memory impairment and aging of the brain. 
Depression and aging of the brain may occur simultaneously, and the greatest symptoms of depression may affect brain health through damage to small blood vessels in the brain. 

The researchers found in their study that the symptoms of depression were associated with poor episodic memory compared to those who did not.
 At the beginning of the study, the team conducted brain tests, brain and memory skills assessments, and after 5 years their memory and thinking skills are tested again.

Depression leads to aging of the brain: Study

 New research has emerged about depression and anxiety, which states that depression speeds up the aging process and makes the brain's brain age faster. 
Depression or anxiety increases the risk of dementia in later life, this is the first study that provides comprehensive evidence for the effect of depression on the decline in overall cognitive function in the general population. 

Research has also shown that older people with more symptoms of depression may have structural differences compared to people without symptoms in the brain.

In fact, A few days back, the American Academy of Neurology published a study report,, entitled "Memory Problems and Depression related to brain aging."

A famous researcher, from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Florida, Zeki Al Hazzouri, Ph.D., MS, said  "25 percent of older adults are facing symptoms of depression, it is important to better understand the relationship between depression and memory problems. 
Since the symptoms of depression can be treated, it can be possible that treatment also reduces thinking and memory problems.

Zeki al-Hazzouri also said that "small vascular lesions in the brain are signs of small vessel disease, in a situation where the walls of small blood vessels are damaged." 
Our research suggests that with depression and brain aging -More symptoms may occur with Depression can affect the health of the brain through small vessel disease, with small brain volume in the brain,  there is a difference in the brain in more symptoms of depression, including 55% more chance of small vascular lesions.

The study included about 1,120 people, which were all stroke-free, with an average age of 71 years. 

At the beginning of the study, all were brain assessments, psychological examination, and assessment of memory and thinking skills. Their memory and thinking skills were tested again five years later. And it was found that 22 percent of participants had more symptoms of depression. 

For the test, the participants told that in the last week, how many times they agreed with the statement, "I was troubled by things which generally did not bother me, and I did not feel like eating." 

After adjusting for race and age, anti-depressant drugs, and other variables, the researchers were more concerned with the memory of poor episodes of depression. 

There was no evidence of the relationship between these symptoms of depression and the change in thinking skills in five years.

Depression speeds up the brain's aging process

Is depression an early clinical presentation of cognitive decline?

The explanations described above about depression and cognitive decline are uncertain, because some questions arise about some explanation.
Is depression an early clinical presentation of cognitive decline? Or depression and cognitive decline are the two symptoms of the third underlying disorder?

In the comparative analysis of previous work, scientists prohibited participants who focus on the link between depression or anxiety and the decline in cognitive function over time. 

Prior to the study, evidence of more than 71,000 participants was combined and dementia was reviewed. It left many patients with symptoms of depression or clinical depression diagnosis, which monitored for signals of cognitive declines, such as memory loss, problems with problems with executive function. 

Importantly, any study of participants diagnosed with dementia at the beginning of the study was excluded from the analysis. This was done to assess the effect of depression more widely on cognitive aging in the general population.

Studies have found that people with depression have experienced a decline in cognitive decline in old adulthood without depression. 
Since the diagnosis of dementia is a long pre-clinical period of several decades, the conclusions for early interventions are important because there is currently no cure for the disease. 
However, it is advisable to point out some boundaries for the study.

• This was a meta-analysis and therefore, many studies were involved with possible different estimates of depression.
• Preclinical dementia can predict dementia for decades, but still causes a change in the brain, which can indicate the reverse causality. Whereas patients with dementia diagnosis were removed from the meta-analysis.

The link between the acceleration of depression and brain aging rates

In the past day, a new study report has been published in Journal Psychological Medicine, which is the final product of meta-analysis, which includes 34 Longitudinal studies examining the relationship between depression and anxiety and brain aging. 

Psychologists at the University of Sussex have found a link between the acceleration of depression and brain aging rates.

Lead writers of the article, Dr. Amber John and Darya Gaysina, from the EDGE Lab at the University of Sussex, want more awareness about the importance of supporting mental health to protect the health of the brain in later life.

"Our population is growing rapidly, and in the next 30 years, there is a significant increase in the number of people who reduce cognitive abilities and dementia," said Darya Gaysina in a statement. 

There was not enough data, researchers found a strong correlation between cognitive decline and depression - people with depression did not have experience in cognitive ability compared to people in old age.

Gaysina also said, "Our findings should give the government more and more reason to take mental health issues seriously and to make sure the health provisions are properly provided. To protect the mental well-being and to protect the work of the brain in later life, people who face depression and anxiety are strong. Then services need to be provided. "

Dr. Amber John, who did this research for her Ph.D. "Depression is a common mental health problem - every year. But people suffering from depression should not be disappointed, the conclusion is that cognitive decline is not a mandatory product of depression and scientists recommend that you risk.
 Cognitive-behavioral therapy, for example, exercises, meditation practice, and the undertaking of therapeutic treatment. 
Appendix so as to help to support the welfare, which can help to preserve cognitive health in the elderly in return. 
Those who are suffering from depression and anxiety, the recommended treatment should appropriately.

Studies provide information about depression and memory and thinking skills, especially among those who are recognized as Hispanic, who have been studied inadequately in previous studies on the subject, even if they are late to increase the risk of dementia in Limitations of the study include that participants should be healthy enough to keep MRIs so that they can be healthy from the general population. 

Apart from this, the study was in a period of five years, which could not be enough time to catch meaningful changes in thinking and memory capabilities over time.

Conclusion

The researchers have found that people with greater symptoms of depression had brain differences, with a smaller brain volume and a 55 percent greater risk of small brain damage to the brain. 
Treating the symptoms of depression contributes to the treatment of problems of thinking and memory, and since about 25% of older people suffer from symptoms of depression, it is important to better understand the relationship between the problems of depression and memory.