Pessimistic, anxious and depressed people may have a higher risk of dementia, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday. 

    A study of a group of 3,500 people showed that those who scored high for pessimism on a standardized personality test had a 30 percent increased risk of developing dementia 30 to 40 years later. 

    Those scoring very high on both anxiety and pessimism scales had a 40 percent higher risk, the study showed. 

    "There appears to be a dose-response pattern, i.e., the higher the scores, the higher the risk of dementia," Dr. Yonas Geda, a neuropsychiatrist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota who led the study, said in a statement. 

    Geda and colleagues looked at the medical records of 3,500 men and women who lived near the clinic between 1962 and 1965. 

    They all took the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, a standard personality and life experience test, Geda 's team told a meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Miami. 

    In 2004 the team interviewed the participants or family members. 

    Those who scored higher for anxiety and pessimism on the test were more likely, as a group, to have developed dementia by 2004, including Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. 

    This did not mean a person who is pessimistic could assume he or she has a higher risk of developing dementia. 

    "One has to be cautious in interpreting a study like this," Geda said. 

    "One cannot make a leap from group level data to the individual. Certainly the last thing you want to do is to say, 'Well, I am a pessimist; thus, I am doomed to develop dementia 20 or 30 years later,' because this may end up becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy." 

    And there is not any specific way to prevent dementia, although many studies have shown that a healthy diet, exercise, keeping active in other ways, doing puzzles and other activities lower the risk. 

    美國研究人員4月14日公布的一份研究報告顯示，悲觀、憂慮和情緒低落的人更容易在數十年后患老年癡呆等病癥。 

    據路透社4月14日報道，這項研究的負責人，美國明尼蘇達州梅約醫學中心的神經精神病學家約納斯·格達和他的同事們查看了3500名該中心附近的居民從1962年至1965年間的醫療記錄。這些人都曾填寫過明尼蘇達州多項個性檢查表（一項關于個性及生活經歷的標準性測試）。 

    2004年，格達研究小組專門對這些人或他們的家人進行了相關調查。結果顯示，那些在個性測試中悲觀表現得分高的人在30年至40年之后出現癡呆的風險較之其他人要高出30％。另外，那些同時具有憂郁和悲觀性格的人，其以后發生癡呆的風險也更大，要比常人高出40％。
 
    報道說，癡呆是一種神經疾病，會影響人們的思考、講話、記憶和行動過程。盡管有許多研究結果曾顯示，健康的飲食、多做體育鍛煉、保持積極心態、多做拼圖游戲等活動可以降低患癡呆癥的風險，但是目前還沒有任何一種特效方法能夠預防這種病癥的發生。