The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry
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Am J Geriatr Psychiatry · Apr 2008
Differential association of concurrent, baseline, and average depressive symptoms with cognitive decline in older adults.
The impact of depressive symptoms on cognitive decline in older adults remains unclear due to inconsistent findings in the literature. It is also unclear whether effects of depressive symptoms on cognitive decline vary with age. This study investigated the effect of concurrent, baseline, and average depressive symptoms on cognitive functioning and decline, and examined the interactive effect of age and depressive symptoms on cognition. ⋯ Depressive symptoms are associated with poor cognitive functioning and cognitive decline, particularly with advancing age. The widespread impact of average depressive symptoms on cognition suggests that clinicians should consider the chronicity of depressive symptoms when evaluating cognitive functioning in older adults.