A new study that followed participants in the long-running Framingham Heart study lands squarely on the side of depression as a risk factor for later dementia.

长期弗莱明翰心脏研究参与者的一个新随访研究直接支持抑郁是以后痴呆的危险因素之一的观点。

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Certain proteins found in the brain that increase with depression may also increase the risk of developing dementia.

大脑中，因抑郁症而数量增加某些蛋白可能增加了患痴呆症的风险。

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The study can't say that depression causes dementia, Saczynski said, but it spurs greater interest in understanding what biological mechanisms might be related to both depression and dementia.

Saczynski说，该研究不能说抑郁引起痴呆，但它激发了更大兴趣地去理解可能与抑郁和痴呆都有关的生物学机制。

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The next step in this line of research is to examine brain images to see what roles depression and dementia may play in the brain, and better understand the mechanisms behind the connection between these two disorders, Saczynski said.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Another theory about why depression and dementia are linked is that depression could be an early sign of changes in the brain that lead to dementia.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

From a practical standpoint, people with depression should be treated, and those who have depression later in life should also be screened for dementia by a neurologist, Isaacson said.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS