TY - JOUR
TI - Major depression in elderly medical inpatients in Greece, prevalence and
identification
AU - Michopoulos, Ioannis
AU - Douzenis, Athanasios
AU - Gournellis, Rossetos
AU - and Christodoulou, Christos
AU - Kalkavoura, Christina
AU - Michalopoulou,
AU - Panagiota G.
AU - Fineti, Katerina
AU - Liakakos, Theodore and
AU - Kanellakopoulou, Kyriaki
AU - Lykouras, Lefteris
JO - Aging: Clinical and Experimental Research
PY - 2010
VL - 22
TODO - 2
SP - 148-151
PB - EDITRICE KURTIS S R L
SN - 1594-0667, 1720-8319
TODO - 10.1007/BF03324788
TODO - Elderly inpatients; general hospital; major depression; underestimation
TODO - Background: The aim of this study was to report the prevalence of
episodes of DSM-IV major depression, as well as their identification
rates, in elderly inpatients in a general hospital in Greece. Methods:
200 selected patients, 65 years old and over, hospitalized in Surgery
and Internal Medicine Departments, were assessed for major depression
over a period of 12 months (October 2006-November 2007) by means of
SCID-I/P, HADS, BDI and GDS-15. During the same period, liaison calls
from the same departments were evaluated and findings were compared.
Results: When psychiatric screening was performed, 28 patients (14%)
were diagnosed as suffering from a major depressive episode. During the
same period, there were only 20 liaison calls from the same departments
for patients over 65 years old, from which 4 patients were found to be
suffering from major depression. Comparison between the two periods
showed significant underestimation of depression. All psychometric
scales detected depression sufficiently. Conclusions: In general
hospital elderly inpatients, depression still remains underestimated.
Depression symptom scales could be used as routine tests for screening
major depression. (Aging Clin Exp Res 2010; 22: 148-151) (C) 2010,
Editrice Kurtis
ER -