SynthesisBMJ open2018
Support for midlife anxiety diagnosis as an independent risk factor for dementia: a systematic review.
Synthesis in BMJ open, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 64 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
64 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 128 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systemic medications and dementia risk: a systematic umbrella review.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms that Predict Cognitive Decline or Impairment in Cognitively Normal Middle-Aged or Older Adults: a Meta-Analysis.Neuropsychology review · 2020Pooled it
- Exercise Impact on Affective/Cognitive Symptoms and QoL in Subjective Cognitive Decline: An RCT.American journal of Alzheimer's disease and other dementiasTrial
- Depression and anxiety in vascular dementia: an update.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Review
- CSF proteome-wide study of neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Exercise Therapy to Reduce Anxiety (ExTRA) in mid-life and later-life adults: pilot feasibility study.BJPsych open · 2026Article
- Feasibility of identifying factors related to Alzheimer's disease and related dementia in real-world data.JAMIA open · 2026Review
- Migraine and the Risk of Dementia in the General Population.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Associations between joint air pollution exposure, mental health, and physical health and dementia incidence in an aging U.S. cohort.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2026Article
- Microscopic colitis is associated with an increased risk of dementia in a Swedish population.Journal of internal medicine · 2026Article
- The association between depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances and dementia: a prospective cohort study of 350,186 adults.BMC neurology · 2026Article
- Mental health conditions are associated with increased risk of subsequent self-harm, assault and unintentional injuries in two nations.Nature. Mental health · 2026Article
- Wellbeing and memory function: testing bidirectional associations in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA).Aging & mental health · 2025Article
- Evaluating metabolome-wide causal effects on risk for psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.BMC medicine · 2025Article
- Mindfulness training combined with cold water immersion effects on mood and perception of executive functioning in middle-aged and older adults: a pilot study.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- A preliminary investigation of worry, cortical amyloid burden, and stressor-evoked brain and cardiovascular reactivity in older adults.Journal of affective disorders · 2024Article
- Hippocampal subfield volume in older adults with and without mild cognitive impairment: Effects of worry and cognitive reappraisal.Neurobiology of aging · 2024Article
- Beyond memory impairment: the complex phenotypic landscape of Alzheimer's disease.Trends in molecular medicine · 2024Review
- Sex and gender differences in cognitive resilience to aging and Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2024Review
- Benzodiazepine use in relation to long-term dementia risk and imaging markers of neurodegeneration: a population-based study.BMC medicine · 2024Article
4 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesAnxiety is an increasingly recognised predictor of cognitive deterioration in older adults and in those with mild cognitive impairment. Often believed to be a prodromal feature of neurodegenerative disease, anxiety may also be an independent risk factor for dementia, operationally defined here as preceding dementia diagnosis by ≥10 years.
designA systematic review of the literature on anxiety diagnosis and long-term risk for dementia was performed following published guidelines. SETTING AND
participantsMedline, PsycINFO and Embase were searched for peer-reviewed journals until 8 March 2017. Publications reporting HR/OR for all-cause dementia based on clinical criteria from prospective cohort or case-control studies were selected. Included studies measured clinically significant anxiety in isolation or after controlling for symptoms of depression, and reported a mean interval between anxiety assessment and dementia diagnosis of at least 10 years. Methodological quality assessments were performed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. OUTCOME MEASURE: HR/OR for all-cause dementia.
resultsSearches yielded 3510 articles, of which 4 (0.02%) were eligible. The studies had a combined sample size of 29 819, and all studies found a positive association between clinically significant anxiety and future dementia. Due to the heterogeneity between studies, a meta-analysis was not conducted.
conclusionsClinically significant anxiety in midlife was associated with an increased risk of dementia over an interval of at least 10 years. These findings indicate that anxiety may be a risk factor for late-life dementia, excluding anxiety that is related to prodromal cognitive decline. With increasing focus on identifying modifiable risk factors for dementia, more high-quality prospective studies are required to clarify whether clinical anxiety is a risk factor for dementia, separate from a prodromal symptom.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.