Risk for depression and cognitive deterioration in older individuals: the important role of past and present environmental influences.

摘要

For many Americans, aging can be successful, with maintenance of happy, healthy, active lifestyles into the eighth or ninth decade of life. However, this happy scenario is not true for many elderly individuals for whom aging may be associated with medical morbidity, disability, social isolation, and the development of neuropsychiatric disturbances, including depression or a decline in memory and cognition. These disturbances are not minor: both depression and cognitive decline increase disability, mortality rates, and risk of institutionalization while lowering one's quality of life. When they occur, these neuropsychiatric disorders have devastating outcomes affecting both the individual and the individual's family. Thus, it is important that we better understand the pathophysiology of how and why these disorders develop, which can potentially guide research toward preventive interventions, wherein we treat the individual before the depression or cognitive decline becomes crippling.