P1-283: The relationship between mood states and preclinical Alzheimer disease in older adults

Depression is often associated with symptomatic Alzheimer disease (AD) and may also be an indicator of preclinical AD. Little is known, however, whether mood abnormalities other than depression may indicate preclinical AD. We examined the relationship between preclinical AD and several mood states. Participants (N=114) with normal cognition (Clinical Dementia Rating, 0), aged 65 years and older were recruited from the Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Center. Participants completed a clinical assessment and psychometric battery, brain amyloid imaging, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) collection. Mood was primarily assessed via the Profile of Mood States (POMS). The POMS includes six subscales (tension-anxiety, depression, anger-hostility, vigor-activity, fatigue, confusion-bewilderment) in addition to a total mood disturbance (TMD) scale where higher scores indicate increased disturbances. The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire (NPI-Q) were assessed as secondary outcomes. We examined correlations among measures of mood and biomarker variables (mean cortical binding potential [MCBP] for Pittsburgh Compound B [PIB], and [CSF] Aβ42, tau, ptau181, tau/Aβ42, ptau181/Aβ42) for CSF. In our sample, participants had PIB (N=114) and CSF (N=82) data available for analysis. There were statistically significant correlations (p ≤.05) between the depression, anger-hostility and fatigue subscales of the POMS and tau, ptau181, tau/Aβ42, ptau181/Aβ42 biomarkers profiles, consistent with preclinical AD. Participants with higher CSF biomarkers reported more depression, anger and fatigue. Conversely, the NPI-Q and the GDS had no statistically significant correlations with any of the biomarker variables. The GDS was correlated with the depression, vigor and fatigue subscales of the POMS, while the NPI-Q was not correlated with any of the POMS subscales. These preliminary results suggest that in addition to depression, other mood states as measured by the POMS are also associated with biomarkers of preclinical AD.