The researchers said that Alzheimer’s patients, who often experience depression and anxiety, develop the disease faster. The results of the study are presented at the annual conference of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
“We still have little understanding of exactly how mental decline and anxiety are linked,” said Maria Spampinato, professor at the University of South Carolina Medical School.
The main physiological cause of Alzheimer’s is the accumulation of the pathogenic protein beta-amyloid inside the brain cells – these are scraps of the APP protein, which plays an important role in the formation of connections between neurons. Some external factors influence the processing of this protein.