You could be 11 times more likely to develop dementia if you have these traits: study

Your anxiety is about to get worse.

Dementia diagnoses are projected to skyrocket in the coming decades. Americans over 55 face a 42% lifetime risk of dementia, a recent study found, with new cases expected to reach 1 million per year by 2060 without significant intervention.

Now, a new study suggests that your risk of dementia significantly increases — up to 90% — if you have one or more mood and anxiety disorders.

Previous studies have linked depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder to an increased dementia risk.

This latest research, published Tuesday in BMJ Mental Health, is purportedly the first to assess the impact of co-existing psychiatric disorders on dementia risk.

The researchers analyzed data from roughly 3,700 patients of a Parisian hospital who had been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, psychosis, substance misuse, personality disorder and/or bipolar disorder between August 2009 and October 2023.

The average patient age was 67.

Of this group, nearly 71% had one psychiatric disorder; 21.5% had two; 6% had three; and 2% had four or more.

Researchers discovered that the odds of developing dementia rose in proportion to the number of psychiatric disorders a patient had.

Those with two psychiatric disorders were twice as likely to be diagnosed with dementia, those with three were more than four times as likely, and patients with four or more psychiatric diagnoses were 11 times more likely to develop dementia.

“The findings of this study highlight the strong association between the co-occurrence of psychiatric disorders and an increased posterior probability of developing dementia, particularly for patterns with anxiety and mood disorders,” the researchers wrote.

These results suggest that concurrent psychiatric disorders may be an early warning sign of and exclusive to dementia, as further analysis found no link between these disorders and the likelihood of other diseases such as renal failure.

Dementia’s impact extends beyond cognitive decline, as it increases the risk of a range of health issues, including infections, serious falls, cardiovascular problems, malnutrition and depression.

The authors acknowledged limitations of their study, noting that participants were exclusively drawn from one psychiatric department and that the study was observational, meaning no concrete conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect.

Still, they remain hopeful that these results will help to encourage earlier and more accurate detection of dementia.

“Integrating [dementia detection] tools into clinical practice for high-risk individuals, especially those with specific psychiatric comorbidities identified in this study, could significantly enhance their care management, given the recent advancements in dementia treatment,” they wrote.