PET Imaging Links Late-Life Mood Disorders to Early Dementia Markers

June 9, 2025

Advanced PET scans reveal that late-life depression and bipolar disorder may signal early neurodegenerative changes before dementia symptoms emerge.

Key Details

  • Study involved 52 late-life mood disorder (LLMD) patients and 47 controls using PET imaging for tau and amyloid proteins.
  • ~50% of LLMD patients showed abnormal tau accumulation vs. 15% of controls; 29% had amyloid vs. 2% of controls.
  • Autopsy of 208 brain cases confirmed higher tau-related pathologies in those with late-life mood symptoms.
  • Pathological protein buildup detectable an average of 7.3 years before cognitive or motor symptoms.
  • Study used two PET tracers to capture diverse tau and amyloid pathologies.
  • Findings support tau-PET as a tool for early detection of neurodegenerative diseases in psychiatric populations.

Why It Matters

These findings advance the role of molecular PET imaging in diagnosing neurodegenerative diseases at the preclinical stage—especially in patients with mood disorders—enabling earlier interventions and reshaping the clinical approach to late-onset psychiatric presentations.

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