Low blood pressure and risk of depression in the elderly. A prospective community-based study.

Abstract

The relationship between depression and low blood pressure in unclear. To examine the temporal relation between low blood pressure and depression in a two-year follow-up. The study group consisted of 1389 subjects aged 59-71 years; 1272 (92%) were examined after two years. Subjects completed the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D) and the Spielberger inventory scales to assess depressive and anxiety symptoms respectively. Data were collected on socio-demographic characteristics, smoking and drinking habits, medical history, drug use and blood pressure measures. Among 1112 subjects who were considered as non-depressed at baseline, logistic regression models showed that low diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and decrease of blood pressure were predictors of high depressive symptomatology at follow-up. Baseline high CES-D scores did not predict low blood pressure two years after. In our study, low blood pressure was a risk factor for, but not a consequence of, high depressive symptomatology.