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Elderly
people often suffer from subthreshold depression, a mild form
of depression that frequently escapes diagnosis and therefore
goes untreated, according to researchers from the Netherlands.
In a six-year
study of 277 elderly adults, researchers measured the severity
of depressive symptoms, duration of symptoms, whether the
depression was treated and how it was managed.
Investigators
found that approximately two-thirds of the study participants
had recurrent episodes of depression. Symptoms were short-lived
in only 14 percent. There were remissions in 23 percent of
the patients.
Fewer
than one-fourth of the patients had been given antidepressants,
the researchers reported in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
Researchers
concluded that subthreshold depression is more severe and
chronic than previously realized and that larger scale interventions
are needed in this population.
Source:
Depression Week
of July 21, 2002
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