Huss A, Spoerri A, Egger M, Röösli M; Swiss National Cohort Study. Residence near power lines and mortality from neurodegenerative diseases: longitudinal study of the Swiss population. Am J Epidemiol. 2009 Jan 15;169(2):167-75. Epub 2008 Nov 5.

The relation between residential magnetic field exposure from power lines and mortality from neurodegenerative conditions was analyzed among 4.7 million persons of the Swiss National Cohort (linking mortality and census data), covering the period 2000-2005. Cox proportional hazard models were used to analyze the relation of living in the proximity of 220-380 kV power lines and the risk of death from neurodegenerative diseases, with adjustment for a range of potential confounders. Overall, the adjusted hazard ratio for Alzheimer's disease in persons living within 50 m of a 220-380 kV power line was 1.24 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.80, 1.92) compared with persons who lived at a distance of 600 m or more. There was a dose-response relation with respect to years of residence in the immediate vicinity of power lines and Alzheimer's disease: Persons living at least 5 years within 50 m had an adjusted hazard ratio of 1.51 (95% CI: 0.91, 2.51), increasing to 1.78 (95% CI: 1.07, 2.96) with at least 10 years and to 2.00 (95% CI: 1.21, 3.33) with at least 15 years. The pattern was similar for senile dementia. There was little evidence for an increased risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, or multiple sclerosis.

Wettstein A. [Epidemiology of dementia and regional health care concepts for dementia patients and relatives] Ther Umsch. 1999 Feb;56(2):69-73.

The prevalence of dementia varies according to the definitions used but shows always an exponential increase with age, a doubling by every five years increase from 60-95 years. Due to the aging of the baby boom generation a doubling of dementia prevalence in the next 50 years is to be expected. Alzheimer's disease is the most frequent cause of dementia. Combinations with vascular, Lewybody, frontotemporal and other causes of dementia are much more frequent than first considered. They all give rise to severe dementia despite only mild Alzheimer changes in the brain. However, a therapeutic response may be expected from cholinergic therapy. Since this pharmacotherapy of dementia only leads to a limited delay of 6-10 months in the progression of dementia, combinations with psychosocial measures such as caregiver-education and care-planning are necessary. We therefore need centers of excellence, such as memory clinics or psychogeriatric counselling centers throughout Switzerland.

Wettstein A, Meier A, Schönenberger MP, Pachmann-Wiesmeth A, Gabathuler U. [The Zurich prospective dementia study 1987-1993] Schweiz Rundsch Med Prax. 1997 Jun 11;86(24):1021-8.

1987-1993 the Zurich prospective dementia study examined twice yearly 308 nursing-home patients: 192 with senile dementia of Alzheimer-type, 18 with Parkinsonism, 20 with Parkinson dementia and 78 controls, with the Zurich variant of the mini-mental state and rated their dementia state by CDR, activities of daily living with ADL and social behavior with an SVS-scale. At the end of the study or at death the average age was 86.2 years (range 63-103 and 159 autopsies were performed which confirmed the clinical diagnoses at least partly in 70%. Of the 62 cases with autopsies who had been studied more than two years 25 showed M.Alzheimer, 8 M, Parkinson, 7 vascular dementia and 13 a combination of those three diagnoses 40% of these Alzheimer patients exhibited no deterioration in the SVS for two years, 40% respectively 30% during one, resp. two years in the CDR, 20% resp. 40% in the ADL and 23% resp. 5% in the MMS. This demonstrates that good nursing-home care can stabilize behaviour and to a lesser extent even cognitive abilities of a large minority of patients with a pathologically confirmed progressive dementing illness.

Speck CE, Kukull WA, Brenner DE, Bowen JD, McCormick WC, Teri L, Pfanschmidt ML, Thompson JD, Larson EB. History of depression as a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. Epidemiology. 1995 Jul;6(4):366-9.

Research regarding the possible association between Alzheimer's disease and a history of depression has been inconclusive. Using a case-control design, we assessed the strength of the association between reported history of depression and onset of Alzheimer's disease. We enrolled probable Alzheimer's disease cases (N = 294), who were ascertained and diagnosed by our Alzheimer's Disease Patient Registry, and randomly selected nondemented controls (N = 300) of similar age and gender from the same base population. The mean age (for cases) was 78.5 years. Informants provided data regarding history of depression. "Treated depression" was defined as depression for which a physician/psychologist consultation, medication, or hospitalization had occurred. Restricting treated depression to exclude primary loss or grief reactions, we found a modest association with Alzheimer's disease [odds ratio (OR) = 1.8; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.9-3.5] after adjusting for gender, age, education, and type of informant. When these data were stratified by depression onset year, we observed an odds ratio of 2.0 (95% CI = 0.9-4.6) for depression occurring more than 10 years before the onset of dementia symptoms, and an OR of 0.9 (95% CI = 0.2-3.0) for depression onset within 10 years of the onset of dementia symptoms. Thus, depressive episodes occurring well before dementia symptom onset appear to increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease.