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Objective: To investigate whether self-efficacy moderates the association between self-rated memory and depressive symptoms in a large sample of older adults. The influence of self-efficacy and depressive symptoms on memory performance was also examined in a subsample of individuals who reported poor memory.Methods: Non-demented participants (n = 3766) were selected from the 2012 wave of the Health and Retirement Study. Depressive symptomatology was assessed with the 8-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. A modified version of the Midlife Developmental Inventory Questionnaire was used as the measure of self-efficacy. Participants were asked to rate their memory presently on a five-point scale from Excellent (1) to Poor (5). Immediate memory and delayed memory (after a 5-min interval) were measured by the number of correct words recalled from a 10-item word list.Results: Multiple regression analyses revealed that negative ratings of memory were significantly associated with greater levels of depressive symptoms, with this effect being greatest in those with low levels of self-efficacy. Additionally, greater self-efficacy was associated with optimal objective memory performances but only when depressive symptoms were low in individuals who reported poor memory function (n = 1196).Conclusion: Self-efficacy moderates the relationship between self-rated memory function and depressive symptoms. Higher self-efficacy may buffer against the impact of subjective memory difficulty on one's mood and thereby mitigating the effect of depressive symptoms on memory. Interventions should focus on increasing perceived self-efficacy in older adults reporting poor memory function to potentially minimize memory impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Structural neuroimaging studies in older adults have consistently shown volume reductions in both major and subthreshold depression. Cortical thickness, another measure of brain structure, has not been well studied in this population. We examined cortical thickness in older adults across a range of depressive symptom (DS) severity.Methods: Forty-three community-dwelling older adults (mean age = 68.80 ± 7.00 years) underwent magnetic resonance imaging. Based on a priori hypotheses, we examined cortical thickness in regions of interest in the rostral anterior cingulate, orbitofrontal cortex, middle frontal gyrus, and isthmus cingulate using multiple linear regressions with depression questionnaire scores as the independent variable and age, sex, and mean hemispheric thickness as covariates. We also performed an exploratory vertex-wise analysis.Results: After correction for multiple comparisons, we found an association between increased DSs and greater cortical thickness in the right isthmus cingulate (F(1, 38) = 8.09, false discovery rate corrected p = 0.028; R(2) = 35.78) in the region of interest analysis and in the left precuneus (cluster size = 413, p = 0.00002) in the vertex-wise analysis.Conclusions: Older adults with higher DSs also have greater cortical thickness in the isthmus cingulate and precuneus, areas important for emotion regulation and self-referential processing. Additional research is needed to elucidate the mechanisms and potential clinical significance underlying this relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Associations between vascular disease and depression in late life, including increased white matter hyperintensities (WMHs), have been reported. Whether depression is an etiology or a consequence of vascular disease is still unknown. We investigated the temporal relationship between depressive symptoms and WMHs in older men and women. Methods We utilized data from 90 dementia-free older adults (39 women, 51 men), 57 years of age and older at baseline, from the neuroimaging substudy of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. Participants were followed for up to 8 years. Ratings of white matter disease burden were available for the first, last, and at least one interim visit, and participants completed the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) annually. Statistical models, performed separately in men and women, examined whether depressive symptoms predicted subsequent WMH ratings or WMHs predicted subsequent depressive symptoms. Results The total CES-D score was not associated with WMHs in men or women. In men, the CES-D depressed mood subscale predicted accelerating longitudinal increases in WMHs at older ages, but WMHs did not predict subsequent depressive symptoms. In women, there were no significant associations between the CES-D depressed mood subscale and WMHs. Conclusions White matter disease may be a consequence of depressed mood in men but not in women. Intervention strategies for depression may slow the progression of white matter disease in older men. These results add to previous findings documenting sex differences in the correlates of depressive disorders in late life. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]