Diagnosing, screening, and monitoring depression in the elderly a review of guidelines
Several tools have been developed for screening and assessing depression in older patients in various settings, such as the Brief Assessment Schedule for the Elderly (BASDED), the SELFCARE (D) and the Center for Epidemiological Studies - Depression scale (CES-D). Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Di...
| Corporate Authors: | , |
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
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[Ottawa]
Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health
8 September 2015, 2015
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| Series: | Rapid response report : summary with critical appraisal
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | |
| Collection: | National Center for Biotechnology Information - Collection details see MPG.ReNa |
| Summary: | Several tools have been developed for screening and assessing depression in older patients in various settings, such as the Brief Assessment Schedule for the Elderly (BASDED), the SELFCARE (D) and the Center for Epidemiological Studies - Depression scale (CES-D). Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Different versions of GDS are available, where the number of possible items range from four of 30. The purposes of this review is to summarize the guidelines that are relevant to the diagnosis, screening and monitoring in elderly patients with depression Even though elderly patients are more vulnerable to depression, it is difficult to identify this condition because the typical symptoms such as sadness may not be the main symptom presented in these patients. Furthermore, they may not be as willing to discuss their feelings or seek help from a health professional. If left unmanaged, depression will compromise the treatment of other conditions, increase the risk of prolonged disability or early death, leave the patients more susceptible to developing other serious health problems such as heart disease, negatively impact the patient's family and healthcare providers, and increase the risk of suicide. Screening tests may be helpful in the early detection of depression in primary care and other healthcare settings. The results may be translated into timely treatment and lead to better health outcomes and a quicker recovery. Depression disorders are one the most common and burdensome mental health problems. The lifetime prevalence of major depressive disorder was estimated as 10.8% in Canadians. This condition is more prevalent in people's later life, particularly in older physically ill patients, who suffer from other illnesses, such as heart disease, low thyroid activity, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer and diabetes, take medications, have chronic or severe pain, lack a supportive network of family/friend/community, experience recent death of a loved one, and have a history of depression or suicide attempts. Depressive symptoms were recorded in 10% to 15% of elderly patients who needed medical attention in the Canadian community. Also, British and American studies reported a prevalence of substantial depressive symptomatology in 14.7% to 20% of elderly living in the community. |
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| Item Description: | Title from PDF caption |
| Physical Description: | 1 PDF file (20 pages) illustration |