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Machine learning-based classification of Alzheimer's disease and its at-risk states using personality traits, anxiety, and depression.

International journal of geriatric psychiatry

Authors: Konrad F Waschkies, Joram Soch, Margarita Darna, Anni Richter, Slawek Altenstein, Aline Beyle, Frederic Brosseron, Friederike Buchholz, Michaela Butryn, Laura Dobisch, Michael Ewers, Klaus Fliessbach, Tatjana Gabelin, Wenzel Glanz, Doreen Goerss, Daria Gref, Daniel Janowitz, Ingo Kilimann, Andrea Lohse, Matthias H Munk, Boris-Stephan Rauchmann, Ayda Rostamzadeh, Nina Roy, Eike Jakob Spruth, Peter Dechent, Michael T Heneka, Stefan Hetzer, Alfredo Ramirez, Klaus Scheffler, Katharina Buerger, Christoph Laske, Robert Perneczky, Oliver Peters, Josef Priller, Anja Schneider, Annika Spottke, Stefan Teipel, Emrah Düzel, Frank Jessen, Jens Wiltfang, Björn H Schott, Jasmin M Kizilirmak

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is often preceded by stages of cognitive impairment, namely subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). While cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers are established predictors of AD, other non-invasive candidate predictors include personality traits, anxiety, and depression, among others. These predictors offer non-invasive assessment and exhibit changes during AD development and preclinical stages.

METHODS: In a cross-sectional design, we comparatively evaluated the predictive value of personality traits (Big Five), geriatric anxiety and depression scores, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging activity of the default mode network, apoliprotein E (ApoE) genotype, and CSF biomarkers (tTau, pTau181, Aβ42/40 ratio) in a multi-class support vector machine classification. Participants included 189 healthy controls (HC), 338 individuals with SCD, 132 with amnestic MCI, and 74 with mild AD from the multicenter DZNE-Longitudinal Cognitive Impairment and Dementia Study (DELCODE).

RESULTS: Mean predictive accuracy across all participant groups was highest when utilizing a combination of personality, depression, and anxiety scores. HC were best predicted by a feature set comprised of depression and anxiety scores and participants with AD were best predicted by a feature set containing CSF biomarkers. Classification of participants with SCD or aMCI was near chance level for all assessed feature sets.

CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate predictive value of personality trait and state scores for AD. Importantly, CSF biomarkers, personality, depression, anxiety, and ApoE genotype show complementary value for classification of AD and its at-risk stages.

© 2023 The Authors. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PMID: 37800601

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