New work building on the results of genome-wide association studies in Alzheimer disease has identified molecular mechanisms that are shared with some psychiatric disorders. The study leveraged ‘omics data and has the realistic potential to elucidate unknown disease mechanisms; however, a lack of information about neuropsychiatric symptoms in the participants with Alzheimer disease limits the conclusions.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Steinberg, M. et al. Point and 5-year period prevalence of neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia: the Cache County Study. Int. J. Geriatr. Psychiatry 23, 170–177 (2008).
Maust, D. T. et al. Antipsychotics, other psychotropics, and the risk of death in patients with dementia: number needed to harm. JAMA Psychiatry 72, 438–445 (2015).
Wingo, T. S. et al. Shared mechanisms across the major psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. Nat. Commun. 13, 4314 (2022).
Ismail, Z. et al. Psychosis in Alzheimer disease — mechanisms, genetics and therapeutic opportunities. Nat. Rev. Neurol. 18, 131–144 (2022).
DeMichele-Sweet, M. A. A. et al. Genome-wide association identifies the first risk loci for psychosis in Alzheimer disease. Mol. Psychiatry 26, 5797–5811 (2021).
Pishva, E. et al. Psychosis-associated DNA methylomic variation in Alzheimer’s disease cortex. Neurobiol. Aging 89, 83–88 (2020).
Creese, B. et al. Examining the association between genetic liability for schizophrenia and psychotic symptoms in Alzheimer’s disease. Transl. Psychiatry 9, 273 (2019).
Johar, I. et al. Genome-wide association of Alzheimer’s disease with dysphoria and evaluation of genetic overlap with major depressive disorder. Alzheimers Dement. 15, 621–622 (2019).
Acknowledgements
B.C. and K.L. are supported by the National Institute On Aging of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01AG067015. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors report no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Creese, B., Lunnon, K. Neuropsychiatric symptoms in AD: the search for mechanisms. Nat Rev Neurol 18, 639–640 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41582-022-00721-x
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41582-022-00721-x