Geriatric depression

Is exercise the best treatment for depression? There is no single cause of depression in any age group. Geriatric Depression ( Depression in Older Adults) Causes of geriatric depression. Symptoms of geriatric depression. Diagnosis of geriatric depression.

Proper diagnosis of geriatric. Geriatric depression in primary care settings is seriously undetecte undiagnose and undertreated. Several tools are available to facilitate screening for depression. A single-item screening question is the simplest among all screening tools.

It’s important to know that depression can occur at any age, but the geriatric population - individuals years of age and older, face particularly concerning issues. Sometimes referred to as depression in later life, geriatric depression is vastly different than depression in younger adults. Are you basically satisfied with your life? Have you dropped many of your activities and interests?

Do you feel that your life is empty? The essential feature of a major depressive episode is a period of at least two weeks when the person experiences either depressed mood (most of the day, nearly every day) or loss of interest or pleasure in nearly all activities. According to the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry ,. In the elderly, depression often occurs with other medical illnesses and disabilities and lasts longer. Depression in the elderly is associated with an increased risk of cardiac diseases and an increased risk of death from illness. Depression is a true and treatable medical condition, not a normal part of aging.

However older adults are at an increased risk for experiencing depression. If you are concerned about a loved one, offer to go with him or her to see a health care provider to be diagnosed and treated. The GDS was originally developed as a 30-item instrument. Since this version proved both time-consuming and difficult for some patients to complete, a 15-item version was developed.

Therefore, it taps the affective and behavioral symptoms of depression and excludes most symptoms that may be confused with somatic disease (e.g., slowness, insomnia, hyposexuality) or dementia. Note: when asking the patient to complete the form, provide the self-rated form (included on the following page). Question Answer Score 1. A meta-analysis done by the University of Liverpool found a 3. This is the original scoring for the scale: One point for each of these.

It targets a population with many risk factors for depression , and depression affects them differently than it does younger people. Immediately contact your medical health professional for further evaluation to make sure geriatric. Consider using a genetic Cytochrome p4Testing Panel to address possible side effects. A comprehensive geriatric mental health needs to be conducted to address cognitive,.

We will consider this page to be under continuous development and try to keep translations of the scale available. It was designed specifically for the age as a screening instrument for depression. Depression among the elderly is mostly ignored or is difficult to detect because common symptoms like loss of appetite or sleep, tiredness, irritability can be part of aging or any physical illness associated with old age.

Both major and minor depression are reported in of community dwelling older adults, of older medical outpatients and of both acute care and nursing home dwelling older adults.