The American journal of psychiatry
-
To understand the role of depressive symptoms in preclinical Alzheimer's disease, it is essential to define their temporal relationship to Alzheimer's proteinopathies in cognitively normal older adults. The study objective was to examine associations of brain amyloid beta and longitudinal measures of depression and depressive symptom clusters in a cognitively normal sample of older adults. ⋯ Higher amyloid beta burden was associated with increasing anxious-depressive symptoms over time in cognitively normal older individuals. Prior depression history was related to higher but not worsening symptom ratings. These results suggest a direct or indirect association of elevated amyloid beta levels with worsening anxious-depressive symptoms and support the hypothesis that emerging neuropsychiatric symptoms represent an early manifestation of preclinical Alzheimer's disease.