Retinal vascular calibers and risk of late-life depression: The Rotterdam Study.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:

To test the "vascular depression" hypothesis, the authors investigated whether smaller retinal arteriolar or larger venular calibers, which are markers of cerebral microvascular disease, were associated with incident late-life depression.

METHODS:

The authors included 3,605 participants (age > or =55 years) from the population-based Rotterdam Study with no depression at baseline (1993-1995) and fundus photographs gradable for retinal vascular caliber measurements. The authors identified persons with incident depressive symptoms and syndromes using psychiatric interviews during follow-up visits and continuous monitoring. The follow-up was complete until October 2005.

RESULTS:

After a mean follow-up of 9.0 years, 555 participants developed incident depression, including 312 with depressive syndrome. Neither smaller arteriolar (age- and sex-adjusted hazard ratio: 1.01; 95% confidence interval: 0.93-1.10), nor larger venular calibers (hazard ratio: 1.02; 95% confidence interval: 0.94-1.12) were associated with incident depressive syndromes.

CONCLUSIONS:

Our data showed no evidence of an association between retinal vascular calibers and incident late-life depression.

• Authors: M Kamran Ikram, Hendrika J Luijendijk, Albert Hofman, Paulus T V M de Jong, Monique M B Breteler, Johannes R Vingerling, Henning Tiemeier
• Journal: The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (Am J Geriatr Psychiatry) Vol. 18 Issue 5 Pg. 452-5 (May 2010) ISSN: 1545-7214 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 20429085 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Topics

• Age Factors
• Aged
• Cerebrovascular Disorders (complications, pathology)
• Depression (complications)
• Female
• Humans
• Netherlands
• Prospective Studies
• Retinal Vessels (pathology)
• Risk Factors
• Sex Factors