Centre for Policy on Ageing



Recognition and response — approaches to late-life depression and mental health
Author(s)	Steve Iliffe
Journal title	Quality in Ageing, vol 10, issue 1, March 2009
Pages	pp 9-15
Source	http://www.pavpub.com
Keywords	Depression ; Dementia ; Anxiety ; Psychoses ; Preventative medicine ; General practice.
Annotation	The boundaries between what is a healthy response to stress and anxiety and what is abnormal are often difficult to determine, especially in primary care. Even symptoms of conditions such as psychosis and dementia can present as relatively normal behaviour. This paper considers depression in late life as an example of this tension. On the one hand, depressive symptoms may be viewed as an "understandable" response to bereavement or physical illness, while on the other, it can be a serious, disabling and life-threatening condition if left untreated. Primary care has a key role in supporting depressed older people, through improved pattern recognition and diagnosis, by tailoring effective treatments to fit the individual, and by providing or signposting the older person to information and advice. This is a pivotal role that primary care plays in relation to other mental health problems that older people experience. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-090417222 A
Classmark	ENR: EA: ENP: EL: LK2: L5
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.