Life events and dementia: what is the nature of their relationship?

The current study analyzed the life events reported by 1271 demented patients vs. 140 cognitively healthy elderly subjects. The Life Change Unit (LCU) method was used to quantify the results. When all the events were included in the analysis, the two groups had similar LCU scores (61.26 vs. 63.42). However, when events causally related to dementia (e.g. stroke) are excluded, demented patients were found to experience half of the LCU load in comparison to controls (30.70 vs. 63.42). In both groups the level of LCU load is far below 100 which is the threshold suggested for the induction of psychosomatic disorders. Conclusively, the current study suggests that there is no causal role for life events in the etiopathogenesis of dementia. On the contrary, demented patients even the last few months before the clinical onset of dementia experience low life-events-related stress, possibly because of subclinical impairment which is already present.