TYPE
Editorial
30 January 2023
10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1088086
PUBLISHED
DOI
OPEN ACCESS
EDITED AND REVIEWED BY
Barbara Penolazzi,
University of Trieste, Italy
Editorial: Neurocognitive disorders
and depression—Complex
interrelationships
*CORRESPONDENCE
Katarzyna Milana Broczek
kbroczek@gmail.com
SPECIALTY SECTION
This article was submitted to
Psychology for Clinical Settings,
a section of the journal
Frontiers in Psychology
03 November 2022
09 January 2023
PUBLISHED 30 January 2023
Katarzyna Milana Broczek1*, Marie-Christine Gely-Nargeot2 and
Pietro Gareri3
1
Polish Society of Gerontology, Mazovia Branch, Warsaw, Poland, 2 Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier III,
Montpellier, France, 3 Dipartimento delle Cure Primarie, ASP Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy
RECEIVED
KEYWORDS
ACCEPTED
cognitive impairment, dementia, depressive symptoms, biomarkers, neuroimaging,
caregivers, COVID-19
CITATION
Broczek KM, Gely-Nargeot M-C and Gareri P
(2023) Editorial: Neurocognitive disorders and
depression—Complex interrelationships.
Front. Psychol. 14:1088086.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1088086
Editorial on the Research Topic
Neurocognitive disorders and depression—Complex interrelationships
COPYRIGHT
© 2023 Broczek, Gely-Nargeot and Gareri. This
is an open-access article distributed under the
terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
License (CC BY). The use, distribution or
reproduction in other forums is permitted,
provided the original author(s) and the
copyright owner(s) are credited and that the
original publication in this journal is cited, in
accordance with accepted academic practice.
No use, distribution or reproduction is
permitted which does not comply with these
terms.
Frontiers in Psychology
Cognitive impairment and depressive symptoms often coexist especially in older adults,
however depression may be associated with signs of cognitive decline at any age. The complex
relationships between cognitive disorders and depression may be viewed from biological,
neuropsychological, medical, and social perspectives. Untangling these interrelationships
may facilitate diagnostic precision, choice of individually tailored treatment options, and
development of practice oriented recommendations.
There are many trajectories linking depression and cognitive decline. Depressive symptoms
might precipitate the onset of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other dementias, depression
may also develop in the course of previously diagnosed neurocognitive disorder due to
neurodegenerative or vascular causes. Cognitive decline resulting from major depression is
often related to as “pseudodementia” and cognitive problems diminish over the course of
antidepressant treatment. On the other hand, depressive disorders increase the risk for cognitive
impairment in the future.
In older adults, mental health problems are often underdiagnosed and undertreated,
therefore societies such as Alzheimer’s Association1 and Alzheimer’s Europe2 promote early
diagnosis of depressive symptoms in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease.
The optimal therapeutic approach to neurocognitive disorders and depression includes
medications, diet, psychological therapy, art therapy, and social support. Increasing evidence
points to treatments based on understanding underlying mechanisms (e.g., increased
inflammatory status) such as probiotics (Dobielska et al., 2022).
The Research Topic addresses the issue of neurocognitive disorders and depression from
various and exciting standpoints. It includes six original research articles, one review, and two
systematic reviews written by 61 outstanding authors.
Masse et al. present a very interesting and useful approach to differentiating results of
neuropsychological assessment between normal aging, late life depression (LLD) and mild AD
including the following domains: verbal episodic memory, executive skills, mental processing
speed, constructional praxis, and semantic memory. Impairment in one cognitive domain
was relatively frequent in healthy older adults, low scores in two domains prevailed in LLD,
1
https://www.alz.org
2
https://www.alzheimer-europe.org
01
frontiersin.org
Broczek et al.
10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1088086
while decline in at least three domains was characteristic for AD.
These findings provide important clues for clinical practice such as
regular follow-up of cognitive performance in patients with LLD.
Van den Bossche and Schoenmakers analyzed affiliate stigma
in relatives of people living with dementia diagnosis and its
impact on caregivers’ mental health. Interestingly, many caregivers’
characteristics including age, sex, and education were correlates of
the impact of stigma on caregivers’ life. The results of the study are
important for creating an inclusive environment for people living
with dementia and their family members.
Cao et al. report on the psychological consequences of
acute myocardial infarction treated with percutaneous coronary
intervention. Of note, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder
were present in substantial percentage of patients 3 months after
the event.
Hall et al. studied cognitively normal older adults in terms
of neurobehavioral symptoms known as risk factors for cognitive
decline such as depression, apathy, anxiety, worry, and disordered
sleep in relationship to blood-based biomarker of neurodegeneration
(plasma total tau, t-tau). T-tau was not a predictor of any of
the assessed symptoms, however, additional analysis revealed
that in individuals with the highest quintile of t-tau, the above
neurobehavioral symptoms were significantly related to the
biomarker level. These results are important clues for further
research, as blood-based biomarkers are an exciting alternative
to cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF) and PET imaging assessment of tau
burden in the brain.
Egglefield et al. applied magnetic resonance imaging to
assess cortical thickness and hippocampal volume in patients
with or without vascular changes in the brain and undergoing
pharmacological treatment for depression. Vascular depression (VD)
was defined as presence of deep white matter hyperintensities
(DWMHs) on T2-weighed FLAIR sequence. Interestingly, no
differences were found between VD and non-VD in terms of gray
matter characteristics.
Wang et al. assessed psychological mechanisms underlying
depression in young adults with special consideration of resilience,
attentional bias, and neuroticism. Depressive symptoms were
frequent in college students which indicated a urgent need for
preventive and therapeutic strategies to promote mental health
across lifespan.
The review by Hammar et al. focuses on neurocognitive
profiles of major depressive disorder. The authors describe three
hypotheses crucial to understanding cognitive decline in depression,
namely state, scar, and trait hypotheses. Clinical implications of
residual cognitive symptoms as well as potential preventive strategies
are discussed.
Ma et al. provide thorough insight into relationship between
interleukin 6 (IL-6) level, depression, and cognitive-behavioral
therapy (CBT) for depression. The authors analyzed the results of
10 studies and found that peripheral IL-6 levels were significantly
lower after CBT. The authors discuss potential modulating antiinflammatory effects of CBT.
Carbone et al. provide a systematic review on psychological
consequences of COVID-19 pandemic for people living with
dementia and their caregivers. As suspected most studies under
review showed increased psychological burden and physical strain in
caregivers as well as increased anxiety and general decline, fatigue,
and cognitive impairment in people living with dementia. Severely
decreased access to health care and social services due to lockdown
was definitely among culprits of psychological consequences of the
pandemic. A positive notion is related to technological advances
enabling video-consultations.
COVID-19 pandemic poses significant threats to health care
systems, but also opens new possibilities of integrated care. How
these options will develop in the future and whether the post-COVID
era will be friendly toward people suffering from neurocognitive
disorders and depression is an open question.
Author contributions
KB is the lead author of the manuscript, PG and M-CG-N
commented and revised the draft. All authors approved the final
version of the manuscript.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in
the absence of any commercial or financial relationships
that
could
be
construed
as
a
potential
conflict
of interest.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those
of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of
their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher,
the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be
evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by
its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the
publisher.
References
Dobielska, M., Bartosik, N. K., Zyzik, K. A., Kowalczyk, E., and Karbownik,
M. S. (2022). Mechanisms of cognitive impairment in depression. May
Frontiers in Psychology
probiotics
4426
02
help?
Front.
Psychiatry
13,
904426.
doi:
10.3389/fpsyt.2022.90
frontiersin.org