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P4‐051: High perceived stress, low cortisol awakening response, and subjective memory complaint: A potential combination for an early sign of cognitive impairment
Author(s) -
Souza-Talarico Juliaery,
Eloah de Lucena Ferretti-Rebustini Renata,
Franco Marinete,
Lacerda Camila Macedo,
Suchecki Deborah
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1016/j.jalz.2015.06.1756
Subject(s) - evening , depression (economics) , cognition , psychology , dementia , cortisol awakening response , audiology , memory impairment , geriatric depression scale , working memory , clinical psychology , medicine , psychiatry , hydrocortisone , depressive symptoms , disease , physics , astronomy , economics , macroeconomics
Background: Memory performance decline is a common complaint among older adults and usually represents a perceived decline of working memory (WM) capacity. Current explanations for subjective memory complaint (SMC) include the complaint as an early sign of cognitive impairment or as an influence of psychological factors such as stress and depression. Interestingly, poor WM capacity, depression, perceived stress and altered cortisol levels were showed in patients with cognitive impairment suggesting that they may play a role in the dementia development. Curiously, these elements have not been aggregately analyzed yet in elderly with SMC who present high risk to dementia. To analyze whether WM capacity, cortisol levels and psychological factors predict the SMC.Methods:TheMemory Assessment Complain Questionnaire (MAC-Q) and Counting Span test (CST) that assess WM capacity were applied to 109 healthy elderly individuals without cognitive or functional deficits. The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) evaluated the psychological factors and diurnal salivary samples obtained at awakening, 30 min after waking, afternoon (w 3 PM) and evening (w 10 PM) periods was used to analyze cortisol levels. Results:The MAC-Q scores revealed that 40.4% (n 1⁄4 44) of the participants showed SMC. Therewere no significant differences in the CST scores (p1⁄4 0.780) between participants with and without SMC. SMC participants exhibited lower cortisol awakening response (CAR). In addition, a significant positive correlation was observed between the MAC-Q and the PSS scores (r 1⁄4 0.361; p < 0.001) and the GDS scores (r1⁄4 0.332; p< 0.001). However, only PSS and CAR predicted the MAC-Q scores (R 1⁄4 0.440; p 1⁄4 0.033). Conclusions: High perceived stress and low cortisol awakening response were predictors of SMC.Given the literature evidence that SMCpredicts dementia the current findings suggest that instead of memory decline, psychological factors may represent the earliest sign of a cognitive impairment.