Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41804263›Full record

ArticleBJPsych open2026

Late-onset depression predicts cognitive impairment and subsequent dementia among older adults with major depressive disorder: findings from UK Biobank and primary care linked data.

Lingfeng Xue, Mariia Bocharova, Allan H Young, Dag Aarsland

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Article in BJPsych open, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Lingfeng XueCentre for Healthy Brain Ageing, https://ror.org/0220mzb33King's College London, UK.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9922-5554
Mariia BocharovaCentre for Healthy Brain Ageing, https://ror.org/0220mzb33King's College London, UK.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2113-699X
Allan H YoungCentre for Affective Disorders, King's College London, UK.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2291-6952
Dag AarslandCentre for Healthy Brain Ageing, https://ror.org/0220mzb33King's College London, UK.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6314-216X

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundLate-life depression (LLD) is associated with cognitive impairment and an elevated risk of dementia, yet the influence of age at depression onset on cognitive prognosis remains unclear. Emerging evidence suggests that late-onset depression, defined as first depressive episode in later adulthood, may reflect distinct neuropathological mechanisms and predict more severe cognitive decline and greater dementia risk than early-onset depression.

aimsThis study aimed to investigate whether late-onset depression is linked to domain-specific cognitive impairment and higher risk of incident dementia among older adults with major depressive disorder.

methodWe analysed UK Biobank data from older adults (aged ≥60 years) with primary care linkage, classifying participants into depression-free controls, early-life depression, late-life depression with early onset (LLD-EO) and late-life depression with late onset (LLD-LO). Cognitive performance across these five domains was assessed cross-sectionally at baseline using touchscreen tasks. Incident dementia was evaluated prospectively using clinical records up to 2022. Multi-level models with inverse-probability weighting and survey-adjusted mixed modelling were applied to assess group differences in cognitive function, controlling for demographic covariates, lifestyle factors and physical and mental health conditions. A Cox regression model was employed to estimate dementia risk among groups.

resultsAmong 75 064 participants aged ≥60 years, the LLD-LO group (

conclusionsLate-onset depression showed more severe impairment in fluid intelligence compared with LLD-EO. Late-onset depression was associated with increased incident dementia compared with depression-free individuals.

Indexed as

dementias/neurodegenerative diseasesDepressive disorderslongitudinal dataold age psychiatrysurvival analysis

Identifiers

PMID41804263
PMCPMC13107299

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