Study Results from National Neuroscience Institute in the Area of Alzheimer Disease Reported (Mechanisms Linking White Matter Lesions, Tract Integrity, and Depression In Alzheimer Disease)

2019 AUG 29 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Pain & Central Nervous System Daily News -- A new study on Neurodegenerative Diseases and Conditions - Alzheimer Disease is now available. According to news reporting out of Singapore, Singapore, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “Late-life depression involves the disconnection of white matter tracts that regulate mood. A pathogenic link between poor tract integrity and depressive symptoms is believed to be white matter lesions (WML), however the mechanisms linking tract integrity, WML, and depression remains unexplored.”

Financial supporters for this research include A*STAR Biomedical Research Council, Singapore, NMRC Centre Grant and Clinical Individual Research Grant, Duke-NUS Medical School Signature Research Program - Ministry of Health, Singapore.

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from National Neuroscience Institute, “The authors sought to identify whether the association between reduced tract integrity and depressive symptoms is mediated by WML in patients with Alzheimer disease (AD), and whether individual characteristics moderate this effect. This was a cross-sectional study in a tertiary memory clinic. A total of 91 patients with mild AD and 79 healthy elderly, comparable in depressive symptoms, white matter hyperintensities (WMH) volume, cardiovascular risk, age, and sex were chosen. Tract integrity was assessed using diffusion tensor imaging, WML were indexed as WMH, measured using fluid-attenuation inversion recovery imaging, and depressive symptoms were measured with the informant-based Geriatric Depression Scale. In patients with mild AD, reduced tract integrity in right hemispheric cortical-subcortical tracts and the genu of the corpus callosum was moderately associated with depressive symptoms. This association was fully mediated by WML. Moderation analysis indicated that old age strengthened the association between all tracts and depressive symptoms, as mediated by WML. In cognitively healthy elderly, neither tracts nor WML were related to depressive symptoms. Reduced tract integrity may be important but not sufficient for the manifestation of depressive symptoms in mild AD.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Instead, WML may drive the pathogenic link between reduced tract integrity and depressive symptoms.”

For more information on this research see: Mechanisms Linking White Matter Lesions, Tract Integrity, and Depression In Alzheimer Disease. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 2019;27(9):948-959. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry can be contacted at: Elsevier Science Inc, Ste 800, 230 Park Ave, New York, NY 10169, USA.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting N. Kandiah, National Neuroscience Institute, Dept. of Neurology, Singapore, Singapore. Additional authors for this research include C. Yatawara, D. Lee, K.P. Ng, R. Chander, D. Ng, F. Ji, H.Y. Shim, J. Zhou, S. Hilal, C. Chen and N. Venketasubramanian.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jagp.2019.04.004. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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