What is geriatric depression

What are common treatments for depression? Which therapy is best for depression? Geriatric depression is a mental and emotional disorder affecting older adults.

Feelings of sadness and occasional blue” moods are normal. However, lasting depression is not a typical part of.

Clinical depression in the elderly is common. Late-life depression affects about million Americans ages and older. But only receive treatment for depression. Are you basically satisfied with your life?

Have you dropped many of your activities and interests? Do you feel that your life is empty? Several tools are available to facilitate screening for depression.

A single-item screening question is the simplest among all screening tools.

A person with depression cannot simply “snap out of it”—it is a medical condition that affects your quality of life. The good news is that, in most cases, depression is treatable in older adults. It’s important to know that depression can occur at any age, but the geriatric population - individuals years of age and older, face particularly. 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.

Depression is not a normal part of aging. According to the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, the most common symptoms of depression in the. 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. A score greater than suggests depression.

This is the original scoring for the scale: One point for each of these. A meta-analysis done by the University of Liverpool found a 3. This scale was developed as a basic screening measure for depression in older adults. We will consider this page to be under continuous development and try to keep translations of the scale available. The GDS Long Form is a brief, 30-item questionnaire in which. Identifying depression in older adults can be challenging because symptoms of the disease are often mistaken as typical signs of aging.

Nearly percent of elderly adults struggling with depression do not receive adequate treatment. Left untreate geriatric depression can worsen.

The GDS was originally developed as a 30-item instrument. It is a common but serious mood disorder that needs treatment. It causes severe symptoms that affect how you feel, think, and handle daily activities, such as sleeping, eating, and working. Further, depression can lead to “higher mortality from suicide and cardiac disease.

Understanding the symptoms of depression and how you may be at risk is the first step in getting help. Total score greater than five indicates probably depression. Issues: The GDS is a screening tool and not a diagnosis. Kennedy, M is Director of the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry and of the Fellowship Training Program at Montefiore Medical Center and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York.

Kennedy is board certified in Geriatric Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine.