Complications (1)
- Alzheimer's: Managing sleep problems
Definition (1)
- Early-onset Alzheimer's: When symptoms begin before 65
Risk factors (2)
- Diabetes and Alzheimer's linked
- Alzheimer's: Is it in your genes?
Symptoms (3)
- Alzheimer's or depression: Could it be both?
- Memory loss: When to seek help
- Alzheimer's stages: How the disease progresses
Tests and diagnosis (3)
- Diagnosing Alzheimer's: An interview with a Mayo Clinic specialist
- Positron emission tomography (PET) scan
- SPECT scan
Treatments and drugs (3)
- Alzheimer's: Getting the most from medical appointments
- Alzheimer's drugs slow progression of disease
- 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 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 — up to 40 percent, in fact — 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, 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
Alzheimer's disease with depression is different
Men and women who have Alzheimer's disease become depressed with equal frequency. This differs from the general population, in which women are more likely to experience depression than are men. People with Alzheimer's may also experience depression differently from people without Alzheimer's. For example, individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease:
- May have symptoms of depression that are less severe
- May experience episodes of depression that don't last as long or recur as often
- Talk of suicide and attempt suicide less often
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