Cerebrovascular Risk Factors and Depression in Older Primary Care Patients: Testing a Vascular Brain Disease Model of Depression

The authors examined whether cerebrovascular risk factors (CVRFs) are associated with depressive diagnoses and symptoms in 303 primary-care patients age ≥60 years, as would be consistent with a small-vessel brain disease model of later-life depression. CVRFs were not significantly independently associated with major, minor, or subsyndromal depression, late-onset major depression, or overall depressive symptom severity. These data did not support the notion that a small-vessel brain disease model of depression might apply to the majority of older persons with depressive symptoms and syndromes in primary-care settings. Future work should include longitudinal study with larger sample sizes.