Simply having a strong "purpose in life" may help to stave off the effects Alzheimer’s disease, researchers said last night.
People with strong purpose seemed to fare better mentally – even when the physical decline of their brains matched those of other patients, researchers have found.
The study, at the Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, USA, involved some 246 patients who had been studied for ten years.
The volunteers had agreed to brain autopsies after death – and this showed the extent of plaques and tangles in the brain linked to Alzheimer’s disease.
The findings are reported in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
Researcher Dr Patricia Boyle said the findings suggested a strategy to help combat the physical impact of the disease.
She said: "Identifying factors that promote cognitive health even as plaques and tangles accumulate will help combat the already large and rapidly increasing public health challenge posed by Alzheimer’s disease."
* Another study in the same journal links life-time depression with the development of dementia.
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, USA, say that depression in late life is linked to Alzheimer’s disease – while when it develops earlier in life it is linked to vascular dementia.
The findings come from a study of the medical histories of some 13,500 patients over a 40 year period.
Researcher Dr Deborah Barnes said: "People who had depressive symptoms in both midlife and late life were much more likely to develop vascular dementia, while those who had depressive symptoms in late life only were more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease."
Arch Gen Psychiatry May 7 2012;69[5]:493-498
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