• Maureen K O'Connor, Byron J Aguilar, Andrew Nguyen, Dan Berlowitz, Raymond Zhang, Amir Abbas Tahami Monfared, Quanwu Zhang, and Weiming Xia.
• Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, VA Bedford Healthcare System, Bedford, MA 01730, USA.
• Mil Med. 2024 Apr 26.

IntroductionThe benefits of early detection of Alzheimer's disease (AD) have become increasingly recognized. Veterans with mental health conditions (MHCs) may be less likely to receive a specific AD diagnosis compared to veterans without MHCs. We investigated whether rates of MHCs differed between veterans diagnosed with unspecified dementia (UD) vs. AD to better understand the role MHCs might play in establishing a diagnosis of AD.Materials And MethodsThis retrospective analysis (2015-2022) identified UD and AD with diagnostic code-based criteria. We determined the proportion of veterans with MHCs in UD vs. AD cohorts. Secondarily, we assessed the distribution of UD/AD diagnoses in veterans with and without MHCs.ResultsWe identified 145,309 veterans with UD and 33,996 with AD. The proportion of each MHC was consistently higher in UD vs. AD cohorts: 41.4% vs. 33.2% (depression), 26.9% vs. 20.3% (post-traumatic stress disorder), 23.4% vs. 18.2% (anxiety), 4.3% vs. 2.1% (bipolar disorder), and 3.9% vs. 1.5% (schizophrenia). The UD diagnostic code was used in 84% of veterans with MHCs vs. 78% without MHCs (P < .001).ConclusionsMental health conditions were more likely in veterans with UD vs. AD diagnoses; comorbid MHC may contribute to delayed AD diagnosis.© The Association of Military Surgeons of the United States 2024. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site–for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.

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