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Background: Alterations in cortisol secretion pattern seem to be involved in the associations between aging, depression, and cognitive decline., Objective: The aim of this study was to mainly assess cortisol circadian profile in older adults with subjective depressive symptoms., Methods: Salivary cortisol samples from healthy young (n = 22) and old adults (n = 22), and from older adults who self-reported depressive symptoms in Geriatric Depression Scale (n = 22) were collected at 7 AM, 4 PM, and 10 PM and were analyzed by radioimmunoassay., Results: Older adults with depressive symptoms presented the characteristic cortisol circadian pattern, but they showed higher cortisol levels at 10 PM than healthy young and elderly controls., Conclusions: Our data suggest that mild depressive symptoms could be associated with a cortisol secretion pattern previously described as being predictive of cognitive decline.

Objectives: This study examines the role of depressive symptoms associated with age on contextual memory and how this association could impair the use of strategic instructions during encoding., Method: Young and older controls and older adults with depressive symptoms performed memory recognition tests for item and context., Results: Memory results indicated that mild depressive symptoms did not aggravate the age-related contextual memory pattern, but interfered with the magnitude of the memory enhancement provided by specific encoding instructions when compared with young adults. These between-group differences in the use of memory strategies were eliminated with the inclusion of the performance on Wisconsin Card Sorting Test as a covariate., Conclusion: Mild depressive symptoms were associated with an impaired ability to use incidental memory strategies at encoding, suggesting the need for further investigation on the effects of non-clinical depressive symptomatology on cognitive decline in aging.