Effects of stressful life events on cerebral white matter hyperintensity progression.

Objective: Exposure to stressful events is associated with both occurrence of depression and also vascular disease. The objective of this study was to determine whether higher levels of stress exposure was related to measures of pathological brain aging, specifically white matter hyperintensity volumes, in older adults with and without depression.

Methods: The sample included 130 depressed and 110 never-depressed older adults aged 60 years or older enrolled in a longitudinal study at an academic medical center.