Summary: A recent study indicates that learning about amyloid beta buildup—linked to Alzheimer’s disease—doesn’t lead to increased emotional distress. Interestingly, motivation to maintain healthy habits tends to decline over time. Healthy individuals who discovered they had no amyloid buildup experienced less depression, anxiety, and memory concerns, but their eagerness to continue positive lifestyle changes decreased.
On the other hand, those with amyloid buildup reported lower anxiety yet no increase in depression, although their motivation also diminished. These results underscore the need for strategies to promote ongoing cognitive health behaviors, especially as potential preventive treatments for Alzheimer’s become more available.
Key Facts:
- No Distress From Risk Disclosure: Discovering amyloid status did not elevate levels of depression or anxiety.
- Motivation Declines Over Time: Both groups showed decreasing motivation to uphold healthy lifestyle practices.
- Need for Long-Term Strategies: It’s critical to support positive behaviors after individuals learn about their risk.
Source: Rutgers
The research, which includes a Rutgers Health researcher, suggests emotional distress doesn’t arise when individuals learn about their Alzheimer’s risk. However, their drive to maintain healthy lifestyle changes diminishes over time, even among those at higher risk.
Published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia, the study was led by Orit Lesman-Segev, alongside doctoral student Sapir Golan Shekhtman from Israel’s Sheba Medical Center, and Michal Schnaider Beeri, director at Rutgers Brain Health Institute.
Amyloid beta, a protein in the brain, is central to Alzheimer’s disease. The presence of amyloid plaques can often be detected years before any symptoms manifest, using techniques like positron emission tomography (PET) scans.
The researchers aimed to explore how individuals emotionally respond to learning their risk for cognitive decline.
In this study, 199 healthy adults underwent amyloid PET scans to determine their amyloid beta status. Before the scans, participants completed surveys assessing anxiety, depression, memory concerns, and motivation for lifestyle changes, and then again six months after receiving their results.
The findings revealed that those without amyloid buildup showed notable emotional improvements, reporting significantly lower levels of depression, anxiety, and memory complaints. Nevertheless, their motivation to sustain lifestyle improvements also dropped.
Conversely, participants with amyloid presence didn’t show an increase in depression or memory issues but did report lower anxiety and decreased motivation for lifestyle changes.
“The findings indicate that knowing about amyloid presence does not harm participants emotionally, and simply learning their status appears to alleviate negative feelings overall,” remarked Schnaider Beeri.
This research helps shed light on individuals’ emotional responses to amyloid status disclosure, a topic that hasn’t been extensively studied before. It also represents a shift towards discussing amyloid status with cognitively healthy individuals, which was uncommon in past research.
The researchers stressed the importance of recognizing individual differences in reactions to such disclosures to create a more tailored approach going forward.
“These results show how quickly people can lose motivation to adopt healthy behaviors aimed at preserving cognitive health,” stated Shekhtman. “Creating strategies to maintain these healthy habits is essential.”
“This research is increasingly important as we look toward preventive therapies for Alzheimer’s disease,” added Lesman-Segev.
“As such treatments become available, cognitively healthy individuals are likely to be screened for Alzheimer’s biomarkers to participate in targeted therapies. Therefore, understanding responses to disclosure and refining the disclosure process is vital.”
About this Alzheimer’s disease research news
Original Research: Open access. “Emotional response to amyloid beta status disclosure among research participants at high dementia risk” by Sapir Golan Shekhtman et al. Alzheimer’s & Dementia
