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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Major depression as a risk factor for early institutionalisation of dementia patients living in the community | | Author(s) | Pascale Dorenlot, Marc Harboun, Vincent Bige |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 20, no 5, May 2005 |
| Pages | pp 471-478 |
| Source | http://www.interscience.wiley.com |
| Keywords | Depression ; Dementia ; Living in the community ; At risk ; Nursing homes ; Admission ; Longitudinal surveys ; France. |
| Annotation | Although depression is known to be frequently associated with dementia, it is nonetheless underdiagnosed and undertreated among this patient population. Its effect on outcome for dementia patients is thought to be substantial, because depression appears to induce higher than normal rates of disability as well as supplementary cognitive decline. This study followed 348 consecutive dementia outpatients (mean age 81, 69.8% women, 65.5% dementia of Alzheimer's type, mean baseline MMSE score 20.5) at a geriatric clinic in Paris between 1997 and 2002. 25% of the patients met the criteria of major depression at baseline, and only 30.3% of these received antidepressant medication. Major depression at baseline was independently associated with nursing home admission within one year of the baseline assessment. Antidepressant medication tended to protect against this outcome, but not to a statistically significant extent. The study highlights the need for better management of depression in dementia outpatients. Further investigation is needed to evaluate the protective effect of antidepressant medication (and/or non-pharmacological therapies) on the institutionalisation rate. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-050609208 A |
| Classmark | ENR: EA: K4: CA3: LHB: QKH: 3J: 765 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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