(29-05-15) Psychological stress and age-related memory decline

as presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology
Higher neuroticism correlated with more rapid age-related cognitive decline in a study presented at AAN, held in April in Washington, D.C. 
Chronic stress has been associated with hippocampal neuronal loss in rodent models but findings in primates and humans have been less convincing. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, recruited 510 neuropsychiatrically normal residents of surrounding Maricopa County (mean age 57.6 years, 70% women, mean education 15.8 years) for neuropsychological testing every two years (mean duration of followup 9.1 years), as well as the complete NEO Five Factor Personality Inventory. The primary outcome measure was the long term memory score of the auditory verbal learning test (AVLT) with secondary measures including the mini-mental status (MMSE), controlled oral word association (COWA), and judgement of line orientation (JLO) tests to assess non-memory domains. Quadratic and linear models were constructed correlating changes in test performance with age in each of three tertiles based upon the NEO Neuroticism factor T score. 
Following data analysis, neuroticism tertiles were found to be as follows: first <39, second 39-45, third >45. With quadratic modeling, AVLT declined more rapidly in the highest tertile (P=0.03) but there were no differences in MMSE (P=0.09), COWA (P=0.12), or JLO (P=0.98). With linear models, AVLT (P=0.002), COWAT (P=0.04), and MMSE (P=.01) all declined more rapidly in the highest tertile.

SOURCE: quotivadis.it

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