Background: Patients with depression and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are at greater risk of developing dementia. Depression involves a higher risk of suicidal ideation (SI) and suicide attempts (SA). Biomarkers of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) could help to clarify the role of depression and SI in AD.
Method: Fifty-nine participants aged > 50 with criteria of MCI positive (MCI-AD) (n=22) and negative (MCI-Non AD) (n=24) AD and healthy controls (HC) (n=13) were evaluated. We used the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-30) and the GDS-SI factor to measure depression and indirect risk for suicide, respectively. Additionally, AD biomarkers such as amyloid-ß (Aß), hyperphosphorilated tau (P-tau), and total tau (T-tau) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were analyzed.
Results: No significant differences between the groups were found in depression. However, in the MCI-AD group, lower P-tau and T-tau levels were related to higher GDS-SI scores, suggesting that MCI-AD patients with lower AD pathology are at a higher risk of suicide.
Conclusions: The result highlights the importance of considering SI in the initial phases of AD, and the potential role of AD biomarkers in early detection of symptoms.