ArticleJournal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD2020
Depression is Associated with Tau and Not Amyloid Positron Emission Tomography in Cognitively Normal Adults.
Article in Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
60 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 98 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sleep duration, sleep efficiency, and amyloid β among cognitively healthy later-life adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC geriatrics · 2024Pooled it
- Association of amyloid-beta with depression or depressive symptoms in older adults without dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Translational psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Personality Associations With Amyloid and Tau: Results From the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging and Meta-analysis.Biological psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Adverse policing as a social exposome pathway: Implications for depression, cognition, and dementia risk.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Tau pathology and depression interact to accelerate driving decline in cognitively normal older adults.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Multimodal serum and MRI signatures of neuroaxonal injury in high-frequency migraine.The journal of headache and pain · 2026Article
- Sleep duration, depression, and cognitive function among older adults in China: A longitudinal cohort study.Preventive medicine reports · 2026Article
- Sporadic Alzheimer's disease with bipolar-like features: a case report and a brief review of the current research status.Journal of Zhejiang University. Science. B · 2026Review
- Sleep duration and amyloid status moderate the association between mood symptoms and amygdalar tau in preclinical Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- PET-measured tau deposition in emotion-related brain regions is differentially associated with depressive symptoms in individuals with versus without Alzheimer's disease pathology.Behavioural brain research · 2026Article
- Modifiable Factors Associated with the Longitudinal Increase and Spatial Extent of Tau Pathology in Alzheimer Disease.Journal of nuclear medicine : official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine · 2026Article
- Depressive symptoms and plasma AT(N) biomarkers among cognitively healthy and mild cognitively impaired in a diverse cohort.Neurobiology of aging · 2026Article
- Remission is insufficient: predictors and mechanistic models of recurrence in late-life depression.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Baseline amyloid burden and global cognitive change during a home-based tDCS protocol in late-life depression: an exploratory single-arm study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Posttraumatic stress disorder, major depression, and mild cognitive impairment: A cohort study of world trade center responders.Psychiatry research · 2026Article
- Association between neurodegenerative plasma biomarkers and geriatric depression in older adults with and without clinical dementia in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Differential effects of soluble and plaque amyloid on late-life depression: The moderating role of tau pathology.The journal of prevention of Alzheimer's disease · 2025Article
- Defining the contributions of tau pathology in the amygdala to increasing depressive symptoms in aging.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
- Depressive Symptoms Correlate With Tau Accumulation Rates in Amyloid Positive Adults.The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry · 2025Article
- Blood biomarkers of neuronal injury and astrocytic reactivity in electroconvulsive therapy.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDepression is also common with older age. Alzheimer's disease (AD) studies suggest that both cerebrospinal fluid and positron emission tomography (PET) amyloid biomarkers are associated with more depressive symptoms in cognitively normal older adults. The recent availability of tau radiotracers offers the ability to examine in vivo tauopathy. It is unclear if the tau biomarker is associated with depression diagnosis.
objectiveWe examined if tau and amyloid imaging were associated with a depression diagnosis among cognitively normal adults (Clinical Dementia Rating = 0) and whether antidepressants modified this relationship.
methodsAmong 301 participants, logistic regression models evaluated whether in vivo PET tau was associated with depression, while another model tested the interaction between PET tau and antidepressant use. A second set of models substituted PET amyloid for PET tau. A diagnosis of depression (yes/no) was made during an annual clinical assessment by a clinician. Antidepressant use (yes/no) was determined by comparing medications the participants used to a list of 30 commonly used antidepressants. All models adjusted for age, sex, education, race, and apolipoprotein ɛ4. Similar models explored the association between the biomarkers and depressive symptoms.
resultsParticipants with elevated tau were twice as likely to be depressed. Antidepressant use modified this relationship where participants with elevated tau who were taking antidepressants had greater odds of being depressed. Relatedly, elevated amyloid was not associated with depression.
conclusionsOur results demonstrate that tau, not amyloid, was associated with a depression diagnosis. Additionally, antidepressant use interacts with tau to increase the odds of depression among cognitively normal adults.
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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.