CHICAGO, June 11 -- Mild cognitive impairment is more likely to develop in those who are beset by chronic mental distress than those who worry the least, concluded researchers here.
That's the conclusion of researchers here, who found that people who scored high on a test of chronic mental distress were more than 40% more likely to develop mild cognitive impairment than those who were the most laid-back.
In an analysis of prospective data from two large studies of aging and the brain, the risk of developing mild cognitive impairment over a 12-year follow-up increased by about 2% for every one-point increase on a measure of chronic distress, according to Robert Wilson, Ph.D., of Rush University Medical Center here.
Depression, on the other hand - although known to predict cognitive impairment and dementia - appeared in this study to be merely a "proxy for the enduring tendency to experience negative emotions," Dr. Wilson and colleagues reported in the June 12 issue of Neurology.
