{"id":209973,"date":"2025-06-24T09:05:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T09:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/209973\/"},"modified":"2025-06-24T09:05:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T09:05:13","slug":"did-depression-cause-my-mothers-dementia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/209973\/","title":{"rendered":"Did depression cause my mother\u2019s dementia?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every morning, two Google news alerts announce themselves as they land in my inbox.<\/p>\n

Ping. Depression.<\/p>\n

Ping. Dementia.<\/p>\n

Their arrival invariably sounds more cheerful than the news either brings.<\/p>\n

My depression alert \u2014 like my encounter with the illness \u2014 predates the one for dementia and is a daily reminder of a once all-consuming quest to find a treatment that worked for my mother, Lala. The one for dementia? No cure for that, but it helped me to understand the manifest symptoms. Why did Mum hallucinate? Why couldn\u2019t she taste anything? Why had she forgotten me? And could I do anything to avoid the same fate?<\/p>\n

These two devastating conditions aren\u2019t linked only in my news feed. Over the years, scientific studies twin them again and again, and my overflowing email folders bear testimony to a cementing of the relationship. The latest research is a comprehensive study by a team at Nottingham University that examined data from nine meta-analyses and included nearly 3.5 million people and more than 284,000 dementia cases.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Rowan with her mother and brother in Kenya, 1970<\/p>\n

ANTHEA ROWAN<\/p>\n

By focusing on when the depression was measured \u2014 in midlife or in later life \u2014 \u201cwe showed that both periods increase dementia risk, with late-life depression linked to a 95 per cent higher risk and midlife depression a 56 per cent higher risk\u201d, the lead author, Jacob Brain, a PhD researcher in medicine, told me.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Depression found to increase memory loss \u2026 and vice versa<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Mum\u2019s depressions started in her thirties. How much of a role did they play in the dementia that revealed itself in her seventies? There are several compelling hypotheses that suggest one drives the other.<\/p>\n

My mother\u2019s incessant worrying \u2014 \u201crumination\u201d in medical jargon \u2014 would have caused a surge in the production of the stress hormone cortisol. And over time, high cortisol levels damage the hippocampus, which is key for memory and learning, says Dorina Cadar at the Centre for Dementia Studies at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, who recently co-authored a study on the bidirectional links between depression and dementia.<\/p>\n

The hippocampus \u2014 from the Greek hippos for \u201chorse\u201d and kampos for \u201csea monster\u201d \u2014 is the seahorse-shaped memory vault that serves as a compass for our spatial awareness and a cache for our life\u2019s stories. First Mum forgot how to find the bathroom. And then she forgot me.<\/p>\n

Cadar says it\u2019s long established that memory loss can lead to depression. After all, as she observes, and as I observed in my mother, losing a sense of self and independence is distressing.<\/p>\n

\"Smiling<\/p>\n

Rowan\u2019s mother developed dementia in her seventies<\/p>\n

ANTHEA ROWAN<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever,\u201d she says, \u201cwe found that depressive symptoms are not only linked to worse memory performance at the start, they also predict faster memory decline later. There\u2019s a bidirectional loop: depression contributes to memory decline and memory decline worsens depression, which is also linked to increased inflammation in the body, which can impact the brain. This low-grade chronic inflammation has been associated with faster cognitive ageing and a higher risk of diseases like Alzheimer\u2019s.\u201d Hence the contemporary coining of the term \u201cinflammageing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Depression has also been shown to hinder the production of important brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF). Think of BDNF as the brain\u2019s fertiliser, imperative for the healthy growth and repair of neurones (nerve cells). Suicide victims have been found to have decreased levels.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u2018They thought Dad was depressed. It was rare type of dementia\u2019<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the theory posited by the Nottingham team, that depression compromises healthy blood flow in the brain. Was that what caused my mother\u2019s stroke at 75? A depression that lasted for more than two years? Or was it, as my mother\u2019s neurologist offered when I pressed him for an explanation, simply that she sat too still for too long? After all, in the absence of the usual stroke suspects of high cholesterol, arrhythmia and high blood pressure, what else could have caused the clot that lodged itself in her left occipital lobe?<\/p>\n

The stroke robbed her of the ability to read by causing the rare condition pure alexia. And without her voracious reading habit, which had shored her up against the worst of her depressions, Mum\u2019s cognitive reserve, that dam of precious saved-for-later intellect, drained away fast.<\/p>\n

If depression was the first nudge on a row of fateful dominoes, it was probably because its effects are cumulative. One study found a 13 per cent increase in dementia risk for every episode of depression; another concluded that while the illness is a risk factor for dementia later, recurring depression is \u201cparticularly pernicious\u201d \u2014 two or more episodes doubles the risk.<\/p>\n

\"Black<\/p>\n

Rowan with her mother in Kenya, 1966<\/p>\n

ANTHEA ROWAN<\/p>\n

A memory: I have accompanied Mum to yet another psychiatric appointment in yet another attempt to find something \u2014 anything \u2014 that might help. Mum is mired in the two-year episode that preceded the stroke that preceded dementia. See what I mean? Catastrophic cumulative collapse: a first slice of mortar worried loose, a first clue of a home falling apart, then an avalanche of bricks that buried Mum under rubble.<\/p>\n

My mother was so anxious about her appointment that she begged me beforehand to do the talking. So I explained, again, when the depressions started \u2014 yes, before my father died \u2014 and how long they lasted. Yes, I say, we\u2019ve tried this, we\u2019ve tried that: ECT, lithium, CBT.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many of these episodes has she had?\u201d the doctor, who has given up trying to get answers out of Mum, asks me. \u201cThree, four?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mum gasps, and speaks for the first time during the consultation, \u201cGod, no! Dozens. I\u2019ve had dozens of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

A long time later my sister and I will calculate that Mum lost a quarter of her life to depression. Twenty years, perhaps more.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not only the direct physiological effects of depression that we need to consider: \u201cThere are behavioural consequences too,\u201d Cadar says, and these have an indirect physiological impact. Depression disrupts sleep, for example. Mum lay awake, night after night, for months, or woke in the small hours and was unable to drop off again.<\/p>\n

It is during deep restorative non-rapid eye movement sleep that the brain sets about its housekeeping. It doesn\u2019t only play and replay our memories, transcribing them to invisible archives with invisible, indelible ink in a process scientists call \u201cmemory consolidation\u201d \u2014 it cleans up between those archives too. In deep restorative sleep, cerebrospinal fluid flows freely, rinsing waste from the brain, its weight in waste every year about 3lb, including toxic beta-amyloid and tau tangles, the signature stains of Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just the right kind of sleep that affects the brain, it\u2019s how peaceful that sleep is. Dr Abidemi Otaiku, a neuroscientist at Imperial College London, recently led research with the UK Dementia Research Institute, which found children and adults who suffered frequent nightmares were more likely to die before 70 than people who didn\u2019t. <\/p>\n

\u2022 Exercise staves off dementia \u2014 if you get enough sleep<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible, Otaiku tells me, that nightmares lead to faster aging because of \u201cthe release of stress hormones like cortisol\u201d. That inflammageing again, and its impact on body and brain. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy previous studies,\u201d he continues, \u201cshowed that people who have more frequent nightmares in childhood, middle age or older age may experience faster cognitive decline and may be more likely to develop cognitive impairment or dementia later in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the last years of her life Mum began to suffer a recurring nightmare. She was trapped on a ship. Sometimes she\u2019d describe her distressing dream over breakfast. \u201cI was on a ship,\u201d she\u2019d say, \u201cI couldn\u2019t get off. I was so afraid. I didn\u2019t know where you were.\u201d <\/p>\n

I ask Otaiku if it was the nightmares exacerbating Mum\u2019s dementia, or dementia the nightmares. The link is interesting, he says, and either could be true: nightmares can be an early sign of dementia, but also \u201cit is plausible that they may hasten it\u201d. Whatever the case, the nightmare of dementia became part of our days.<\/p>\n

I once asked Mum what depression feels like. \u201cLike living behind glass,\u201d she told me. A perfect descriptor of the cold isolation the illness brings.<\/p>\n

If you look to the Lancet\u2019s list of modifiable risks for dementia, you\u2019ll find poor sleep, lack of exercise and social isolation. You\u2019ll also find depression: 3 per cent of all dementia cases are attributable to the illness.<\/p>\n

Professor Gill Livingston, lead author of the Lancet\u2019s list, offers a small reassuring caveat: while depression \u201creally increases the risk of dementia, it seems that this is only for people who remain untreated or do not get better\u201d.<\/p>\n

Worryingly, though, Paul Keedwell, a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists who works at Re:cognition Health and who developed a liaison service where GPs could access specialist psychiatric advice, says the incidence and prevalence of major depression and other mental health illnesses in the UK has risen over the past decade, influenced by socioeconomic factors and the pandemic.<\/p>\n

But on a hopeful note, treatments in primary care \u2014 especially psychological treatments \u2014 have improved, he says. \u201cThis means that depression is being diagnosed earlier, and the earlier it is treated, the better. Your GP is still the best place to start.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also, he adds, there\u2019s a growing repertoire of pharmacological and neuromodulatory treatments, so the prognosis for depression is improving. \u201cBut treatment-resistant depression remains a significant challenge, and demand for treatment is increasing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Craig Ritchie, at Scottish Brain Sciences, is at pains to point out that a handful of depressive episodes are unlikely to have a lasting impact on a brain. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about \u2018chronic exposure\u2019,\u201d he says, for it takes years for the body\u2019s natural resilience to be overwhelmed \u2014 years of the brain being \u201csteeped\u201d in stress, \u201cjust like it takes years of eating badly, years of sugar overload, to expose a person to the risk of type 2 diabetes\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Nottingham team\u2019s findings endorse the importance of identifying and treating depression at any stage of life because, as Livingston says, \u201cmany fewer people would develop dementia if their depression was helped\u201d. And, as Cadar says, addressing depression early may protect memory, and protecting memory may protect mental health. <\/p>\n

Hand in hand, see.<\/p>\n

If years of my mother\u2019s life had not been lost to depression, I believe we would not have lost her to dementia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every morning, two Google news alerts announce themselves as they land in my inbox. Ping. Depression. Ping. Dementia.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[105,218,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-209973","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114737546995374063","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}