Family history of depression and alcoholism in Alzheimer patients and age‐matched controls

Abstract

SUMMARYDepression and depressive symptoms are reported to occur frequently in patients with Alzheimer's disease; however, familial and psychobiological contributions associated with depression in Alzheimer patients are poorly understood.In this study, we compared family history of depression and alcoholism in 44 patients with probable Alzheimer's disease and 38 aged-matched cognitively intact controls. Results from comparison showed no overall difference between the occurrence of depression in first-degree relatives of Alzheimer patients compared to firstdegree relatives of controls. There was, however, significantly lower incidence of alcoholism in relatives of Alzheimer patients, particularly male relatives w0.05). This finding suggests that family history and depression alone may not fully explain the high rate of depression in Alzheimer patients and that other factors including neurochemical changes in the brains of Alzheimer patients should be considered.

Psychiatric disorders in relatives of subjects with Alzheimer's disease

“…A secondary, unexpected result of the present study was the reduced risk of anxiety disorders and substance abuse in first-degree relatives of AD patients in comparison with relatives of controls.A lower risk of alcoholism in relatives of AD subjects had already been described by Lawlor et al (1989).…”

Is there a familial overlap between dementia and other psychiatric disorders?

“…Devi et al (2004) found preliminary evidence of a higher prevalence of a history of psychiatric symptoms among relatives of EOAD patients when compared to LOAD patients. Some earlier studies (Martin et al, 1988;Lawlor et al, 1989;Li et al, 1992;van Ojen et al, 1995;Fahim et al, 1998) have shown increased occurrence of depression and other psychiatric disorders among the relatives of patients with AD. Other studies (Pearlson et al, 1990;Strauss and Ogrocki, 1996) reported an increase in depression among relatives of probands with AD, specifically when the latter had co-morbid depression.…”

A Family Study of Alzheimer Disease and Early- and Late-Onset Depression in Elderly Patients

“…Few studies have examined the familial aggregation of AD and depression simultaneously. The available studies [32][33][34][35][36] have often shown increased occurrence of depression and other psychiatric disorders among the relatives of patients with AD, and vice versa. Two groups 37,38 reported an increase in depression among relatives of probands with AD, specifically when the latter had comorbid depression.…”