Summary: A new research has identified three internal profiles that affect mental wellbeing, cognitive decline, and memory danger in aging adults. While those with lower safe or higher negative traits are at risk for brain degeneration and mental health issues, those with high protective traits, such as purpose and openness, exhibit better cognition and brain integrity.
To tailor treatments like those that advance life’s purpose or lessen distress symptoms, researchers emphasize thorough mental assessments. These findings help to develop customized strategies to stop mental decline and promote brain health in older and older adults.
Important Information:
- Psychological Profiles: Three profiles, defined by safe and risk traits, affect mental wellbeing, thinking, and memory risk.
- Safe Factors: All age groups have a relationship between better mental and cognitive health, such as a sense of purpose and flexibility.
- Intervention Focus: Therapies that address problems or enhance living purpose may stop mental decline in at-risk information.
Origin: University of Barcelona
A global research that was published in the journal Nature Mental Health  has identified three mental profiles that are linked to various patterns of mental and brain decline as a result of aging.
The study, which examined more than 1, 000 middle-aged and older individuals, found that the individual mental traits of each report may affect both the rate of memory and other factors like the brain’s rate of decline and sleep excellent.
These results provide fresh insights into how to create more effective prevention plans.
The findings, according to the research team, highlight the need for thorough mental assessments of patients to identify various internal profiles and enable more distinct and singularly tailored behavior change strategies to be implemented.
The study is led by David Bartrés-Faz, a researcher at the , Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences , and the Institute of Neurosciences ( UBneuro ) of the University of Barcelona.
He serves as the director of the Institut Guttmann Barcelona Brain Health Initiative ( BBHI), which aims to discover and understand how to maintain the brain’s health, as well as a member of the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute ( IDIBAPS).
Mental decline: risk and protective elements
New research identified psychological traits that could contribute to greater risk or protection from cognitive decline, neurodegeneration, and medical dementia.
For instance, having recurring bad experiences, a tendency to feel depressed, and perceived anxiety are related to greater risk, while having a sense of purpose in life or self-reflection may act as protective factors against such drop.
In this study, conducted on data from more than 1, 000 volunteers of the BBHI and the , Medit-Ageing , international study, the research team examined whether these factors — protective and risk factors — combine in similar psychological profiles in two independent cohorts of middle-aged adults and older people without cognitive impairment.
Bartrés-Faz stresses that” to date, psychological risk and protective factors have been examined almost exclusively independently: this approach is limiting, as psychological characteristics do not exist in isolation”.
The team then examined how each of these profiles is related to cortical thickness, brain integrity, cognition, lifestyle, and mental health as well as cognitive evolution and brain atrophy over time.
The researcher at the UB and Gutmann Institute said,” The goal was to understand how various combinations of psychological characteristics are related to mental, cognitive, and brain health.
Mental and cognitive health implications
The results show that having a “well-balanced” psychological profile, with moderately high protective factors and moderately low-risk factors, is associated with better cognitive and mental health in all indicators measured.
These associations were observed in all the age groups that were examined, which confirms the importance of taking into account the balance of a wide range of psychological factors as determinants of mental, cognitive, and brain health in adulthood and older age, according to Bartrés-Faz.
On the other hand, a psychological profile that had low protective traits like a sense of purpose, extraversion, or willingness to try new things was linked to poorer cognition (especially in older people ), more severe brain damage ( which is already observable in middle-aged adults ), and lower adherence to healthy lifestyles.
Finally, the third profile identified, characterized by high levels of negative or risky psychological traits, such as a high propensity for distress and negative thoughts, “may increase the risk of cognitive impairment and dementia through a psycho-affective pathway, including the expression of symptoms such as depression, anxiety, cognitive complaints, loneliness and sleep disorders”, says the researcher.
Future prevention interventions
These findings could have significant implications for the design of upcoming preventive measures to alter psychological factors and lifestyles once they have been validated in larger-sample studies.
” For instance, people with characteristics that are compatible with the psychological profile and have low levels of protective factors may benefit more from psychological therapies, such as acceptance and commitment therapy, which include the identification or re-identification of valued behaviors and life goals,” Bartrés-Faz observes.
However, the researcher claims that “people who adhere to the criteria of the third profile identified may have a better response to therapies that have recently been shown to have a potential benefit” for reducing distress-related symptoms.
The expert emphasizes the value of conducting” comprehensive psychological assessments, including analysis of both risk and protective factors, to more accurately estimate each person’s risk profile.”
About this research on personality and cognitive decline
Author: Rosa Martínez
Source: University of Barcelona
Contact: Rosa Martínez – University of Barcelona
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
” Psychological profiles associated with mental, cognitive and brain health in middle-aged and older adults” by David Bartrés-Faz et al. Nature Mental Health
Abstract
Psychological profiles associated with mental, cognitive and brain health in middle-aged and older adults
Different dementia risk and protective factors are related to psychological traits.
To determine whether these characteristics aggregate into psychological profiles and whether these profiles differentially relate to aging health, we conducted a cross-sectional investigation in two independent middle-aged ( 51.4 ± 7.0 years ( mean ± s. d. ),  , N = 750 ) and older adult ( 71.1 ± 5.9 years,  , N = 282 ) cohorts, supplemented by longitudinal analyses in the former.
Using a person-centered approach, three profiles emerged in both cohorts: those with low protective characteristics ( profile 1 ), high risk characteristics ( profile 2 ) and well-balanced characteristics ( profile 3 ).
In older and middle age ( at follow-up ), Profile 1 revealed the worst objective cognition and the fastest cortical thinning. In both older and middle age, Profile 2 displayed the worst mental health symptoms and the worst sleep quality.
We found profile-dependent divergent associations that may point to two distinct paths in terms of mental, cognitive, and brain health, highlighting the need for thorough psychological assessments in dementia prevention research to identify individuals who need more personalized behavior-change strategies.
