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Intervention Helps Depressed Elderly

By Shanida Smith, Ivanhoe Newswire

 

 May 26, 2003

NEW YORK - Researchers at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York are beginning to analyze data from a study that may help prevent suicide in the elderly. Early indications show older adults who have major depression benefit more from a change in care delivery than medications.

Investigators gathered data from 1,200 participants, ages 60 and older, with depressive symptoms and signs. Primary physicians for the control group were advised to treat depression in their patients however they wanted. Participants in the intervention group received a one-time, targeted intervention from depression specialists; nurses, psychologists or social workers specially trained to treat depressive patients.

Lead researcher George Alexopoulous, M.D., told Ivanhoe, "What we have seen is that, in those patients who had major depression, they were most likely to benefit from intervention." Depression, suicidal thoughts and hopelessness were reduced in the intervention group prominently after four months. In addition, the study shows primary physicians may not be equipped to handle major depression.

Dr. Alexopoulous says the assumption in the medical field is if anti-depressants work for some, they would be able to treat everyone. However, he says, "What we're finding is that that might be true for mild depression, but not severe cases of depression."

Early indications also show older adults are not inclined to see themselves as depressed or to accept the diagnosis. Dr. Alexopoulous says, "Two-thirds of the depressed elderly never see a mental health specialist." He adds patients in the intervention group accepted the depression specialists because they were directly working in the primary physician's office. As a result, the participants did not feel stigmatized.


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