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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Dysthymia among the community-dwelling elderly | | Author(s) | Michael Kirby, Irene Bruce, Davis Coakley |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 14, no 6, June 1999 |
| Pages | pp 440-445 |
| Keywords | Depression ; Anxiety ; Living in the community ; Screening ; General practice ; Ireland. |
| Annotation | There are few data on the clinical features of dysthymia (a chronic depressive state with symptoms of less severity than major depression) among older people living in the community. 40 over 65s in Dublin with dysthymic disorder were identified following screening in the community with GMS-AGECAT. A detailed clinical history was obtained and DSM-IV checklists and standardised scales were used at a second interview. Comparisons were made with a group of 630 non-depressed older people from the same community. Dysthymia was predominantly of late onset (93%) and associated with a major stressor in 65% of cases. Comorbid axis 1 disorders were present in 15% of dysthymics and an axis 2 disorder in 10%. The dysthymic group had significantly higher degrees of physical impairment than the non-depressed. The symptom profile demonstrated prominent anxiety and functional features. 83% of those with dysthymia had presented to their GP with anxiety/depressive symptoms at some stage during the dysthymic disorder. The presentation of dysthymia in older people differs from that in earlier life, being associated with significant degrees of physical impairment. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-990825268 A |
| Classmark | ENR: ENP: K4: 3V: L5: 763 |
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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