Zapater-Fajarí Mariola, Crespo-Sanmiguel Isabel, Cedres Nira, Rydberg Sterner Therese, Rydén Lina, Sacuiu Simona, Waern Margda, Zettergren Anna, Zetterberg Henrik, Blennow Kaj, Kern Silke, Hidalgo Vanesa, Salvador Alicia, Westman Eric, Skoog Ingmar, Ferreira Daniel
Division of Clinical Geriatrics, Center for Alzheimer Research, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences, and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Laboratory of Cognitive Social Neuroscience, Department of Psychobiology and IDOCAL, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
Sci Rep. 2025 Apr 2;15(1):11299. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-95411-1.
Loneliness is a neuropsychiatric symptom that has been associated with cognitive impairment and dementia. We aimed to investigate whether depressive symptomatology and biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and cerebrovascular disease (CVD) are associated with loneliness. Secondly, we aimed to investigate whether loneliness, depressive symptomatology, and biomarkers of AD and CVD are associated with subjective cognitive decline (SCD). We included 215 cognitively unimpaired participants (70 y/o) with cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers, magnetic resonance imaging, and questionnaires for loneliness, depressive symptomatology, and SCD. For aim 1, our findings showed that CVD and depressive symptomatology were the most relevant measures to discriminate people with loneliness. For aim 2, a random forest classification model showed that loneliness contributed to discriminate individuals with SCD, but logistic regression showed that its partial predictive effect was non-significant when depressive symptomatology and AD biomarkers were included in the models. We conclude that loneliness is associated with SCD, CVD, and depressive symptomatology. Given the complex interplay between loneliness, depressive symptomatology, and SCD, more research is needed to fully clarify the unique role of each neuropsychiatric symptom in relation to biomarkers of brain pathology.
孤独是一种神经精神症状，与认知障碍和痴呆症有关。我们旨在研究阿尔茨海默病（AD）和脑血管疾病（CVD）的抑郁症状及生物标志物是否与孤独有关。其次，我们旨在研究孤独、抑郁症状以及AD和CVD的生物标志物是否与主观认知下降（SCD）有关。我们纳入了215名认知未受损的参与者（70岁），他们提供了脑脊液生物标志物、磁共振成像，以及关于孤独、抑郁症状和SCD的问卷。对于目标1，我们的研究结果表明，CVD和抑郁症状是区分孤独者的最相关指标。对于目标2，随机森林分类模型显示孤独有助于区分患有SCD的个体，但逻辑回归显示，当模型中纳入抑郁症状和AD生物标志物时，孤独的部分预测作用并不显著。我们得出结论，孤独与SCD、CVD和抑郁症状有关。鉴于孤独、抑郁症状和SCD之间存在复杂的相互作用，需要更多研究来充分阐明每种神经精神症状在与脑病理学生物标志物相关方面的独特作用。
