A new study reveals that depression is associated with the later development of Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia – a condition caused by blocked or reduced blood flow to the brain, depriving brain cells of oxygen and nutrients.

The report in the British Journal of Psychiatry is an analysis of 23 prior studies that followed nearly 50,000 older adults over a median of five years. The researchers found that depressed older adults (over age 50) were more than twice as likely to develp vascular dementia and 65 percent more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than those who weren’t depressed. Read the full article