Diagnosis and clinical management of depression in mild cognitive impairment

Mild cognitive impairment refers to a transition phase between the normal aging process and AD. Because of its high prevalence and high rate of conversion to dementia, MCI is a major public health concern in our rapidly aging society. Affecting up to 20% of patients with MCI, depression is a common neuropsychiatric comorbid condition. Several effective treatment modalities are available for depression in patients with MCI. Proper assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of depression should improve patients' lives substantially, although further research on diagnosis and treatment of depression in patients with MCI is needed. The most pressing research issue is the need to better characterize the phenomenology of depression in patients with MCI. Such characterization could lead to a consensus criteria for depression in these patients and serve as the basis for further studies on its epidemiology, etiopathogenesis, treatment, and long-term outcomes.