The exact nature of the relationship between depressive symptoms and dementia in the elderly remains inconclusive, with multiple studies supporting both the risk factor and prodromal hypotheses. Some provide arguments for common risk factors. It seems unlikely that there is no connection at all. We conclude that at least in a significant part of the patients, depressive symptoms and dementia are related. This may be due to common risk factors and/or depressive symptoms being a prodromal symptom of dementia and/or depression being a risk factor for dementia. These causal associations possibly overlap in some patients. Further research is warranted to develop predictive biomarkers and to develop interventions that may attenuate the risk of "conversion" from depressive symptoms to dementia in the elderly.
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Wiels et al. (2020) studied this question.
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