Anxiety Symptoms in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment Are Associated with Medial Temporal Atrophy and Predict Conversion to Alzheimer Disease

Anxiety symptoms in aMCI predict conversion to AD, over and beyond the effects of depression, memory loss, or atrophy within AD neuroimaging biomarkers. These findings, together with the greater EC atrophy rate predicted by anxiety, are compatible with the hypothesis that anxiety is not a prodromal noncognitive feature of AD but may accelerate decline toward AD through direct or indirect effects on EC.