Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T06:40:27.534Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hypertension and cognitive decline

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Robert Stewart
Robert Stewart*
Affiliation:
Section of Old Age Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF. Tel: 0171 919 3550; Fax: 0171 701 0167
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Significant associations have been reported between cognitive decline, dementia and measures of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease. Such findings raise important possibilities for prevention of dementia through reducing the burden of vascular pathology. However, given the long prodromal periods for both clinical vascular disease and dementia, the most fruitful way forward may lie in investigating the effects of risk factors for vascular disease, rather than clinical vascular disease itself. Hypertension has received considerable attention in this respect although it is only recently, thanks to findings from prospective population-based research, that the complex interrelationship between blood pressure levels and cognitive decline has begun to be clarified.

Type
Editorials
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 174 , Issue 4 , April 1999 , pp. 286 - 287
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

References

Breteler, M. M. B., Grobbee, D. E. & Hofman, A. (1993) Blood pressure, hypertension, orthostatic hypotension, and cognitive function in the elderly. The Rotterdam Study. In Cognitive Decline in the Elderly. Epidemiologic Studies on Cognitive Function and Dementia. Thesis (ed. Breteler, M. M. B.). Rotterdam: Erasmus University.Google Scholar
Elias, P. K., Elias, M. F., D'Agostino, R. B., et al (1997) NIDDM and blood pressure as risk factors for poor cognitive performance. Diabetes Care, 20, 1388–1395.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guo, Z., Viitanen, M., Fratiglioni, L., et al (1996) Low blood pressure and dementia in elderly people: the Kungsholmen project. British Medical Journal, 312, 805–808.Google Scholar
Kuusisto, J., Koivisto, K., Mykkänen, L., et al (1997) Association between features of the insulin resistance syndrome and Alzheimer's disease independently of apolipoprotein E4 phenotype: cross sectional population based study. British Medical Journal, 315, 1045–1049.Google Scholar
Pohjasvaara, T., Erkinjuntti, T., Ylikoski, R., et al (1998) Clinical determinants of poststroke dementia. Stroke, 29, 75–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prince, M., Bird, A. S., Blizard, R. A., et al (1996) Is the cognitive function of older patients affected by antihypertensive treatment? Results from 54 months of the Medical Research Council's treatment trial of hypertension in older adults. British Medical Journal, 312, 801–804.Google Scholar
Skoog, I., Lernfelt, B., Landahl, S., et al (1996) 15-year longitudinal study of blood pressure and dementia, Lancet, 347, 1141–1145.Google Scholar
Sparks, D. L., Scheff, S. W., Liu, H., et al (1995) Increased incidence of neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) in non-demented individuals with hypertension. Journal of Neurological Science, 131, 162–169.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tatemichi, T. K., Paik, M., Bagiella, E., et al (1994) Risk of dementia after stroke in a hospitalised cohort: results of a longitudinal study. Neurology 44, 1885–1891.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yoshitake, T., Kiyohara, Y., Kato, I., et al (1995) Incidence and risk factors of vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease in a defined elderly Japanese population: The Hisayama Study. Neurology 45, 1161–1168.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.