This is what scientists say University of Maastricht and the University of Exeter (UK). The researchers discovered fifteen factors that increase the risk of dementia at a young age. Two of the most important causes appear to be depression and social isolation.
Although dementia is often associated with older people, the disease can also develop before the age of 65. For example, due to a combination of genes, your social class or lifestyle. But poor mental health also appears to be an important risk factor and a good predictor for the development of the disease. Researchers concluded this after examining data from more than 350,000 people from the United Kingdom. “Social isolation and depression in particular appeared to increase the risk of dementia at a young age,” says researcher Stevie Hendriks, Postdoctoral Researcher at Maastricht University.
And these are just two factors that cannot be easily prevented. After all, getting rid of depression is very different from giving up a beer for your health. Moreover, depression and loneliness are both factors that are currently common, especially in this age group. It is now estimated that one in five Dutch people will experience depression at some point in their lives. “You see that depression is common among people in their thirties and forties, informal caregivers, but also increasingly among young people,” psychologist Bert van den Bergh previously said in an interview with Scientias.nl.
Depression epidemic
The depression is not only rampant in the Netherlands. According to the World Health Organization, three hundred million people worldwide suffer from depression. The figures have even led to talk of a depression epidemic. Hendriks is therefore of the opinion that it is not a problem that should be solved individually. “As a society, we put too much work pressure on ourselves. So it is also something that we as a society must help reduce.”
Prevent
In particular, we could provide better guidance to people who have an increased risk of developing dementia at a young age. “If dementia runs in the family at a young age, for example, we could monitor these people better. In addition, we can give them tools to prevent social isolation, and we must treat depression more quickly.” That is better for everyone, Hendriks emphasizes, not only if you have an increased risk of dementia. In addition, old advice remains, says fellow researcher Sebastian Köhler. “We already know that there are things you can do to prevent or delay dementia in old age. For example, eat healthy, exercise, train your brain and take good care of your feelings. This also applies to dementia at a young age. It is also important to avoid or treat stress, loneliness and depression.”
The difference between dementia in young people and the elderly
Dementia is a collective name for more than fifty brain diseases. The biggest difference between dementia at a young age and at an older age is how often the different types occur. “About 70% of the elderly have Alzheimer’s disease,” says Hendriks. It is therefore one of the most well-known forms of the disease. “Only 30% – 40% have this form of dementia at a young age. The rest is often caused by rarer variants that mainly occur at a younger age. Lewy body dementia, for example, or frontotemporal dementia. This may have to do with the fact that the symptoms of these types of dementia start earlier, says Hendriks. “We know that Alzheimer’s disease takes longer to develop symptoms, so it makes more sense that this occurs more often later in life.” The researchers cannot yet say whether mental health also influences specifically one of these forms. They hope to be able to demonstrate this later with larger studies.
Prevalence
In the Netherlands, approximately 15,000 people have dementia at a young age. About 1,000 to 1,500 are added every year. These people often have busy lives with a job, a family and a house. “The impact of dementia at a young age is therefore very great,” says Hendriks. It is therefore important to recognize dementia at a young age, which was the reason for the scientists to conduct this research. “We want to know more about the causes and consequences of this disease. This way we can hopefully give more people a better life.”
This research was the first step: gaining a better understanding of why dementia develops at a young age. “In the next step, we want to investigate whether we can offer preventive measures for people with an increased genetic risk of developing dementia at a young age. We hope that we can also offer tailor-made prevention, so that we can really play a meaningful role,” says Hendriks enthusiastically. Although these are big ambitions, she admits.
Hearing damage also plays a role
In addition to mental causes and known physical causes, the researchers also discovered that people who suffer from hearing damage have an increased risk of dementia at a young age. They cannot yet determine exactly why this is, although there are ideas about it. Hendriks: “You can imagine that hearing damage at a young age can lead to social isolation. That is why you can classify it as a mental cause, but we have not yet been able to investigate this causally. For now we only know that there is a connection.”
2024-01-06 13:17:46
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