Age of major depression onset, depressive symptoms, and risk for subsequent dementia: results of the German Study on Ageing, Cognition, and Dementia in Primary Care Patients (AgeCoDe)

Depression might be a prodrome of AD but not of dementia of other aetiology as very late-onset depression in combination with current depressive symptoms, possibly emerging as a consequence of subjectively perceived worrisome cognitive deterioration, was most predictive. As depression parameters and subjective memory impairment predicted AD independently of objective cognition, clinicians should take this into account.