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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Physician attitudes toward treatment of depression in older medical inpatients | | Author(s) | Harold G Koenig |
| Journal title | Aging & Mental Health, vol 11, no 2, March 2007 |
| Pages | pp 197-204 |
| Source | http://www.tandfonline.com |
| Keywords | Depression ; In-patients ; Medical care ; Attitude ; Doctors ; Social surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Many older depressed patients in medical settings are not treated or referred for their depression. Physicians caring for a consecutive series of 1000. depressed older medical inpatients were asked about their general attitudes and behaviours related to the treatment of depression during treatment and after discharge. Of 422 physicians responding to questionnaires, less than half (48%) usually started more than two patients a month on antidepressants. Even fewer (14%) referred more than two patients a month for counselling. 37% usually referred none at all; only 11% referred more than two patients a month to a psychiatrist; and nearly 40% usually referred none. Antidepressants, counselling, and psychiatric referral were seldom thought very effective. Physicians out of their training and those in primary care specialties (especially family practice) were more likely to treat patients. Common reasons for not treating these patients were perceived resistance to treatment (62.3%), lack of time (61.1%), uncertainty of depression diagnosis (56.2%), belief that patients could not afford treatment (50.5%), and concern about medication and disease interactions (58.8%). One-third (33.5%) emphasised that they were unsure about treatment effectiveness and one-third (34.4%) that they were poorly prepared to treat depression in older patients. Non-white physicians were more likely to refer to psychiatrists. To conclude, physician experience and specialism may affect the decision to treat, while physician ethnicity may affect the decision to seek consultation. (RH) |
| Accession Number | CPA-070514217 A |
| Classmark | ENR: LF7: LK: DP: QT2: 3F: 7T |
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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