Dementia: Negative Thinking Linked With More Rapid Cognitive Decline, Study Indicates By Natalie L Marchant, UCL via Natural Blaze
Dementia affects an estimated 54 million people worldwide. There no cure, but reports indicate that approximately a third of dementia cases may be preventable, which is why many researchers have begun to focus on identifying risk factors. This would allow for better personalised interventions that may be able to reduce risk, delay, or even prevent the onset of dementia.
Current research shows that genetics, high blood pressure, and smoking are all risk factors for developing dementia. But a lot of people don’t realise that there is also a relationship between mental ill-health and higher dementia risk too. Studies have shown that depression, anxiety, and post traumatic stress disorder are all linked to a higher risk of developing dementia in older age. Our recent study builds on this research by examining whether a style of thinking that is common to these mental health conditions is associated with indicators of Alzheimer’s disease, the most common type of dementia.
People experiencing mental ill health frequently engage in a style of thinking called “Repetitive Negative Thinking”. This style of thinking involves the tendency to have negative thoughts about the future (worry) or about the past (rumination), and these thoughts can feel uncontrollable.
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In 2015, I developed a hypothesis called “Cognitive Debt” which proposed that repetitive negative thinking could be the “active ingredient” common in all these mental health conditions that may help explain the increased dementia risk we observe. Our recently published study tested this hypothesis for the first time. We found that repetitive negative thinking was indeed associated with indicators of Alzheimer’s disease.
Our study looked at 292 older adults aged 55+ from the PREVENT-AD project in Canada. Their cognitive function was assessed, measuring memory, attention, spatial cognition, and language. Of these participants, 113 also had their brain scanned, which allowed researchers to measure deposits of tau and amyloid. These two proteins are biological markers of Alzheimer’s disease when they build up in the brain. A further 68 people from the IMAP+ project in France underwent PET brain scans to measure amyloid.
