Stress said to increase memory problems

Stress said to increase memory problems

Researchers at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago say in a new study that people who are constantly under stress or are regularly experiencing bouts of depression are at an increased risk of developing memory problems. The details of the study appear in the journal Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Earlier studies by the same team of researchers had found that distressed people were at an increased risk for developing Alzheimer's disease. In the current study researchers referred to data from the Religious Orders Study and the Memory and Aging Project.

Overall 1,482 people were involved in the study. Among them 482 people developed memory issues in the follow-up period of 12 years. Researchers also evaluated the level of stress in these people by getting them to answer statements that analyzed the degree of their temper.

"People differ in how they tend to experience and deal with negative emotions and psychological distress, and the way people respond tends to stay the same throughout their adult lives," said study author Robert S. Wilson. "These findings suggest that, over a lifetime, chronic experience of stress affects the area of the brain that governs stress response. Unfortunately, that part of the brain also regulates memory."

He added that while the stress levels do not increase with age, memory problems associated with it like Alzheimer's disease unfortunately do. The study concluded that stressed out individuals were 40 times more likely to suffer cognitive impairment than normal individuals.