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Six symptoms associated with depression in midlife could increase your dementia risk later on in life, according to new findings by researchers from University College London.
Dementia is estimated to affect more than 55 million people worldwide—a figure expected to skyrocket to 153 million within the next 25 years. At present, there is no cure.
In their study, the researchers set out to identify modifiable risk factors that can be spotted in midlife, to delay or even prevent the onset of the neurodegenerative disease.
In 2024, the Lancet Commission determined that depression is a “potentially modifiable midlife risk factor” for developing dementia. The team was keen to investigate this link between midlife depression and later-life dementia further.
The researchers first examined public health data on 5,811 U.K. adults—aged between 35 and 55 at the time the study began—that was collected between 1985 and 1988, and then again between 1997 and 1999.
Those who reported five or more symptoms of depression in their initial examinations were classified as depressed.
Next, the team tracked the health histories of the patients through until 2023, to see how many of the subjects went on to develop dementia and, if so, what types.
Over the two-decade follow-up period, 10.1 percent of the original participants did develop a form of dementia.
The researchers identified six symptoms associated with midlife depression that they say are indicators of increased dementia risk. These include:
- Losing confidence in oneself.
- Not feeling able to face up to problems.
- Not feeling warmth and affection for others.
- Feeling nervous and strung-up all the time.
- Not feeling satisfied with the way tasks are carried out.
- Experiencing difficulties concentrating.
“Our findings show that dementia risk is linked to a handful of depressive symptoms rather than depression as a whole,” paper author and UCL health psychologist Philipp Frank said in a statement. “This symptom-level approach gives us a much clearer picture of who may be more vulnerable decades before dementia develops.
“Everyday symptoms that many people experience in midlife appear to carry important information about long-term brain health. Paying attention to these patterns could open new opportunities for early prevention.”
The researchers noted that the data they analyzed did not include established dementia risk factors such as the APOEε4 gene, cardiometabolic conditions, and lifestyle factors.
In individuals younger than 60 years at baseline, the six symptoms “fully” accounted for the association between midlife depression and dementia risk, the team said.
The findings also showed that participants classified as depressed in midlife had a 27 percent higher risk of developing dementia later on. However, this increased risk was found to be driven entirely by the six depressive symptoms in adults under 60.
In particular, loss of self-confidence and difficulty coping with problems were each associated with a roughly 50 percent increased risk of dementia.
Though this is the first large-scale longitudinal study to examine whether specific depressive symptoms underlie the association between midlife depression and later-life dementia, the majority of the study’s participants, at 71.7 percent, were men.
This leaves room for researchers to better explore the impact of midlife depression on women’s brain health in future studies.
Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about dementia? Let us know via [email protected].
Reference
Frank, P., Singh-Manoux, A., Pentti, J., Batty, G. D., Sommerlad, A., Steptoe, A., Livingston, G., Howard, R., & Kivimäki, M. (2025). Specific midlife depressive symptoms and long-term dementia risk: A 23-year UK prospective cohort study. The Lancet Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(25)00331-1
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