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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Differences in geriatric psychiatry outpatients with early- vs late-onset depression | | Author(s) | Suzanne Holroyd, John J Duryee |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 12, no 11, November 1997 |
| Pages | pp 1100-1106 |
| Keywords | Depression ; Out-patients ; Psychiatric treatment ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | This US study assessed clinical and demographic differences between 74 geriatric psychiatry outpatients with early- vs late-onset depression. 15 patients had an early onset of depression (before age 60) and 59, late onset. Early-onset patients had significantly more episodes of depression, a higher mean number of prescribed medications (5.3 vs 3.5) and active medical disorders (4.6. vs 3.1) than late-onset patients. Specifically, early onset of depression was associated with an elevated presence of cardiac disease (53.3% vs 23.7%), diabetes (46.7% vs 16.9%), gastro-intestinal disorder (40% vs 12%), and arthritis (26.7% vs 6.8%). These findings support previous reports that people with a history of depression experience greater medical morbidity that those who do not. The study groups did not differ with respect to Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) score or presence of a concurrent dementia disorder. These results were unexpected, given previous studies that indicate greater cognitive impairment in late- vs early-onset depression. The potential contribution of increased vascular risk factors among the early onset group may have partly contributed to the finding of no difference in cognition between the two groups. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-981001217 A |
| Classmark | ENR: LFB: LP: 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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