Short-term psychological impacts of Alzheimer's disease risk disclosure based on blood-biomarker results

IF 7.4 Q1 CLINICAL NEUROLOGY

Alzheimer''s and Dementia: Translational Research and Clinical Interventions Pub Date : 2026-07-16 DOI:10.1002/trc2.70295

Bhargavi Ramamurthy, Adena Cho, Maryam Abdolmaleki, Nathan Fayez, Dominic Roby, Karen B, Maynard, Angela L. Jefferson, Corey Bolton

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Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Blood-based biomarkers (BBMs) of Alzheimer's disease (AD) provide important information about risk for dementia, but little is known about the psychological impact of sharing BBM results to participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Most AD risk disclosure studies have been conducted in cognitively unimpaired individuals and have not used BBMs. This pilot randomized trial tests the hypothesis that disclosing AD risk based on BBMs is not associated with increased psychological harm compared to standard disclosure methods.

METHODS

Participants (n = 27, 73 ± 11 years) with MCI were enrolled and randomized to the intervention (n = 16) or control (n = 11) arm. Participants received a risk estimate based on their age, sex, and equivalent Mini-Mental State Examination score for both groups, with plasma phosphorylated tau 181 results included for the intervention group. Participants completed questionnaires assessing depression, anxiety, and hopelessness prior to disclosure and 2 weeks later. A repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to determine changes in psychological responses over the follow-up period with a time x group interaction term assessing group differences.

RESULTS

Participants in the intervention and control group were similar across baseline demographic and clinical factors (P values ≥ 0.23). Repeated measures MANOVA showed a significant reduction in psychological symptoms from baseline to 2-week follow-up (P = 0.006) in the combined sample. Follow-up univariate models showed the reduction was driven by a significant reduction in anxiety (mean ± standard deviation; baseline = 13.3 ± 7.7; follow-up = 9.8 ± 9.9; P = 0.02). Time x group interaction was non-significant (P = 0.31) indicating similar psychological responses across groups.

DISCUSSION

In this pilot study of participants with MCI, psychological response to learning risk of progression to dementia did not differ between those who received a risk estimate based on a BBM versus standard clinical information. Two weeks after disclosure, there was an overall decline in anxiety. These preliminary findings suggest that AD risk disclosure using BBMs is not associated with psychological distress.

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基于血液生物标志物结果的阿尔茨海默病风险披露的短期心理影响

阿尔茨海默病（AD）的血液生物标志物（BBM）提供了痴呆症风险的重要信息，但对轻度认知障碍（MCI）参与者分享BBM结果的心理影响知之甚少。大多数阿尔茨海默病风险披露研究都是在认知功能未受损的个体中进行的，并且没有使用脑卒中模型。与标准披露方法相比，基于脑卒中的AD风险披露与心理伤害增加无关，该试点随机试验验证了这一假设。方法纳入MCI患者（n = 27, 73±11岁），随机分为干预组（n = 16）和对照组（n = 11）。两组参与者根据其年龄、性别和等效的迷你精神状态检查分数接受风险评估，干预组包括血浆磷酸化tau 181结果。参与者在披露前和两周后完成了评估抑郁、焦虑和绝望的问卷。使用重复测量多变量方差分析（MANOVA）来确定随访期间心理反应的变化，并使用时间x组相互作用项评估组间差异。结果干预组和对照组的受试者在基线人口统计学和临床因素方面相似（P值≥0.23）。重复测量方差分析显示，在联合样本中，从基线到2周随访，心理症状显著减少（P = 0.006）。随访单变量模型显示，焦虑显著减少是导致焦虑减少的原因（平均值±标准差；基线= 13.3±7.7；随访= 9.8±9.9;P = 0.02）。时间x组相互作用无显著性（P = 0.31），表明各组之间的心理反应相似。在这项MCI参与者的试点研究中，接受基于BBM和标准临床信息的风险评估的参与者对学习进展为痴呆风险的心理反应没有差异。消息披露两周后，焦虑情绪总体下降。这些初步研究结果表明，使用脑卒中模型披露AD风险与心理困扰无关。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Alzheimer''s and Dementia: Translational Research and Clinical Interventions Medicine-Psychiatry and Mental Health

CiteScore

10.10

自引率

2.10%

发文量

134

审稿时长

10 weeks

期刊介绍： Alzheimer''s & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions (TRCI) is a peer-reviewed, open access,journal from the Alzheimer''s Association®. The journal seeks to bridge the full scope of explorations between basic research on drug discovery and clinical studies, validating putative therapies for aging-related chronic brain conditions that affect cognition, motor functions, and other behavioral or clinical symptoms associated with all forms dementia and Alzheimer''s disease. The journal will publish findings from diverse domains of research and disciplines to accelerate the conversion of abstract facts into practical knowledge: specifically, to translate what is learned at the bench into bedside applications. The journal seeks to publish articles that go beyond a singular emphasis on either basic drug discovery research or clinical research. Rather, an important theme of articles will be the linkages between and among the various discrete steps in the complex continuum of therapy development. For rapid communication among a multidisciplinary research audience involving the range of therapeutic interventions, TRCI will consider only original contributions that include feature length research articles, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, brief reports, narrative reviews, commentaries, letters, perspectives, and research news that would advance wide range of interventions to ameliorate symptoms or alter the progression of chronic neurocognitive disorders such as dementia and Alzheimer''s disease. The journal will publish on topics related to medicine, geriatrics, neuroscience, neurophysiology, neurology, psychiatry, clinical psychology, bioinformatics, pharmaco-genetics, regulatory issues, health economics, pharmacoeconomics, and public health policy as these apply to preclinical and clinical research on therapeutics.