| |
Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
 | |
|
Natural history of depression in the oldest old
— population-based prospective study | | Author(s) | Max L Stek, David J Vinkers, Jacobijn Gussekloo |
| Journal title | British Journal of Psychiatry, vol 188, January 2006 |
| Pages | pp 65-69 |
| Source | http://bjp.rcpsych.org |
| Keywords | Depression ; Evaluation ; Octogenarians ; Longitudinal surveys ; Netherlands. |
| Annotation | Among the oldest old, depression is frequent and highly persistent. This study of the incidence, course and predictors of depression in the general population of the oldest old uses data from the Leiden 85-plus Study of 500 Dutch people from their 85th to their 89th birthdays. Depressive symptoms were assessed annually with the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) using a cut-off of 4 points. During a mean follow-up of 3.9 years, the annual risk for the emergence of depression was 6.8%. Poor daily functioning and institutionalisation predicted depression. Among the 77 participants with depression at baseline (prevalence 15%), the normal remission rate was only 14%. In more than half of the participants with a remission of depression, the authors observed a relapse of depression during follow-up. No predictors of remission could be identified. Therefore, more active case finding and treatment would be potentially rewarding. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-060424205 A |
| Classmark | ENR: 4C: BBM: 3J: 76H |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
|
| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
| |
|