Complications (1)
- Alzheimer's: Managing sleep problems
Coping and support (3)
- Caregiving: Tips for long-distance caregivers
- Caregiver stress: Tips for taking care of yourself
- Alzheimer's: Planning for the holidays
Definition (1)
- Early-onset Alzheimer's: When symptoms begin before 65
Prevention (1)
- Home safety tips: Preparing for Alzheimer's caregiving
Risk factors (2)
- Diabetes and Alzheimer's linked
- Alzheimer's genes: Are you at risk?
Symptoms (3)
- Memory loss: When to seek help
- Alzheimer's stages: How the disease progresses
- Alzheimer's or depression: Could it be both?
Tests and diagnosis (4)
- Diagnosing Alzheimer's: An interview with a Mayo Clinic specialist
- Sharing Alzheimer's diagnosis: Tips for caregivers
- Positron emission tomography (PET) scan
- see all in Tests and diagnosis
Treatments and drugs (3)
- Alzheimer's: 7 tips for medical visits
- Alzheimer's: Drugs help manage symptoms
- Alzheimer's treatments: What's on the horizon?
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Alzheimer's or depression: Could it be both?
Alzheimer's and depression have some similar symptoms. Proper treatment improves quality of life.
By Mayo Clinic staffEarly Alzheimer's disease and depression share many symptoms, so it can be difficult even for doctors to distinguish between the two disorders. And many people with Alzheimer's also are depressed.
One important difference between Alzheimer's and depression is in the effectiveness of treatment. While Alzheimer's drugs can only slow the progression of cognitive decline, medications to treat depression can improve a person's quality of life dramatically.
People who have both Alzheimer's and depression may find it easier to cope with the changes caused by Alzheimer's when they feel less depressed.
Similar symptoms
Some of the symptoms common to both Alzheimer's and depression include:
- Loss of interest in once-enjoyable activities and hobbies
- Social withdrawal
- Memory problems
- Sleeping too much or too little
- Impaired concentration
With so much overlap in symptoms, it can be hard to distinguish between the two disorders, especially since they so often occur together. A thorough physical exam and psychological evaluation can be helpful in determining a diagnosis. However, many people with moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease lack both the insight and the vocabulary to express how they feel.
Signposts for depression
To detect depression in people who have Alzheimer's disease, doctors must rely more heavily on nonverbal cues and caregiver reports than on self-reported symptoms. If a person with Alzheimer's displays one of the first two symptoms in this list, along with at least two of the others within a two-week period, he or she may be depressed.
- Significantly depressed mood — sad, hopeless, discouraged, tearful
- Reduced pleasure in or response to social contacts and usual activities
- Social isolation or withdrawal
- Eating too much or too little
- Sleeping too much or too little
- Agitation or lethargy
- Irritability
- Fatigue or loss of energy
- Feelings of worthlessness, hopelessness or inappropriate guilt
- Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide
(1 of 2)
- Press D, et al. Treatment of behavioral symptoms related to dementia. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan 12, 2010.
- Depression and Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's Association. http://www.alz.org/living_with_alzheimers_depression.asp. Accessed Jan 12, 2010.
- Espinoza RT, et al. Diagnosis and management of late-life depression. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan 19, 2010.
- Burns A, et al. Alzheimer's disease. British Medial Journal. 2009;338:467.
- Starkstein SE, et al. Depression in Alzheimer's disease: Phenomenology, clinical correlates and treatment. International Review of Psychiatry. 2008;20:382.
- Olin JT, et al. Provisional diagnostic criteria for depression of Alzheimer disease. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. 2002;10:125.
- Serretti A, et al. Genetics of Alzheimer's disease. A rapidly evolving field. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. 2007;12:73.
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