Centre for Policy on Ageing



The outcome of depression and dysthymia in a very elderly population: results from a three-year follow-up study
Author(s)	Y Forsell, A F Jorm, B Winblad
Journal title	Aging & Mental Health, vol 2, no 2, May 1998
Pages	pp 100-104
Source	http://www.tandfonline.com
Keywords	Over 70s ; Depression ; Dementia ; Longitudinal surveys ; Sweden.
Annotation	Depression is a common disorder in older people. In population-based studies the rate of treatment is low. In spite of this most of the studies on the outcome of depression in older people are based on treated series. This Swedish study used data from a population of 1,101 very elderly persons. Of these, 7.2% were diagnosed as having a major depression and 3.5% as having a dysthymia at an initial examination. Both syndromes were over-represented in persons affected by dementia. Seventy-seven percent of the depressed persons had consulted a physician recently, and 17% were treated for depression. Three years later those who were depressed and had survived were re-examined. At the follow-up examination 48.6% of the non-demented persons and 14.3% of those with dementia were depressed. The study concluded that the rate of treatment of depression in very elderly people was low and the course was chronic or relapsing in almost half of the cases. (AKM).
Accession Number	CPA-980612407 A
Classmark	BBK: ENR: EA: 3J: 76P
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

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