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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Follow-up study of depression in the elderly
— clinical and SPECT data | | Author(s) | Eleanor Halloran, Neil Prentice, Catherine L Murray |
| Journal title | British Journal of Psychiatry, vol 175, September 1999 |
| Pages | pp 252-258 |
| Keywords | Depression ; Evaluation ; United Kingdom. |
| Annotation | Imaging studies in depression of older people are often small and highly selective. The aim of this study was to investigate a large group of older depressed patients in order to assess changes in clinical, imaging and neuropsychological variables at follow-up. A total of 175 patients aged between 65 and 91 years with clinical depression were identified from consecutive local referrals. Clinical interviews, neuropsychological tests and SPECT scans were carried out a referral and and 2-year follow-up. Results showed that of 84 re-examined patients, 46.5% were well, 9.5% were ill, 33% partially recovered and 11% had developed dementia. Duration of illness before index assessment was the only factor to predict outcome. Thirty-nine patients could be scanned and followed up. There were no differences between patients with good or poor depressive outcome on SPECT. The findings indicate that the patient group was comparable with other studies showing high levels of residual depressive symptoms. Activity changes in limbic cortex are implicated in depression in older age. (AKM). |
| Accession Number | CPA-991021201 A |
| Classmark | ENR: 4C: 8 |
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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