Alzheimer's Disease Treatment Reduces Depression and Suicide Risk

Alzheimer's Disease Treatment Reduces Depression and Suicide Risk: A survey performed by the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and published in the Journal Biological Psychiatry finds: "Depression is one of the most frequent comorbidities of Alzheimer's disease, affecting up to 50% of AD patients." There is now substantial and accumulating basic science and clinical evidence linking neuro-inflammation with severe depression. In a landmark study published in the Journal Neuropsychopharmacology, Susana G. Torres-Platas analyzed the brains of suicide victims and concludes: "The presence of hypertrophic astrocytes in BA24 white matter is consistent with reports suggesting white matter alterations in depression, and provides further support to the neuroinflammatory theory of depression." **