email article A history of either anxiety or depression was inversely associated with the age when Alzheimer's disease started, a retrospective analysis suggested. People with Alzheimer's disease who had a past diagnosis of anxiety were 3 years younger than other Alzheimer's patients when they developed the disease, reported Zachary Miller, MD, of the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), and co-authors. Patients with a history of depression were 2 years younger at Alzheimer's onset, they said in an abstract released in advance of the 2021 American Academy of Neurology annual meeting. The findings were based on 1,500 Alzheimer's disease patients from the UCSF Memory and Aging Center who were screened for past psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Researchers evaluated typical Alzheimer's risk factors -- hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, education, and