Physician Detection of Depression in Medically Ill Elderly

Abstract

Depression in physically 2l elderly has received a considerable amount of attention. Nevertheless the effects of age and gender, both on the prevalence of depression and its detection has not been studied. The present investigation of 150 medically ill geriatric inpatients found that age was highly related to depression. Depression was significantly more prevalent in the young-old (aged 60-74) than in the old-old (aged 75+). Depression rates did not significantly vary between men and women. Physician detection of depression, however, was significantly better for female than for male patients.