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How is depression in the elderly patient diagnosed?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2023

R. Fernández Fernández ,
Á. Izquierdo de la Puente ,
P. del Sol Calderón  and
O. Méndez González
R. Fernández Fernández*
Affiliation:
Psychiatry, Hospital Universitario Infanta Cristina, Parla
Á. Izquierdo de la Puente
Affiliation:
Psychiatry, Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro, Majadahonda, Spain
P. del Sol Calderón
Affiliation:
Psychiatry, Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro, Majadahonda, Spain
O. Méndez González
Affiliation:
Psychiatry, Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro, Majadahonda, Spain
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

The diagnosis of depression in the elderly patient presents peculiarities that should be taken into account. Studies point out the importance of an adequate screening of suspected cases of depression in older adults by physical therapists and other non-mental health professionals (Ramos Vieira et al., 2014). In this study, we intend to find out which are the most used diagnostic methods in Mental Health research on geriatric patient.

Objectives

To analyze the diagnostic methods most used in research on the geriatric patient, specifically in articles that analyze the patient with cognitive impairment.

Methods

A bibliographic search of all articles analyzing depression in patients with cognitive impairment between 2000 and 2020 was carried out. The diagnostic method of depression in each of them has been collected.

Results

A total of 38 studies were analyzed. The most common diagnostic method continues to be the use of diagnostic criteria (ICD or DSM), which is used in 34.2% of the studies, while the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) is the most commonly used test, appearing in 23.7% of the studies. The remaining tests (CIDI, GDS, HAM17, PHQ, SCID, SCL-90, SGDS) do not reach 10% each.

Counts% of TotalCumulative %
GDS25.3 %5.3 %
CES-D923.7 %28.9 %
CIDI25.3 %34.2 %
Diagnostic criteria1334.2 %68.4 %
EURO-D12.6 %71.1 %
PHQ25.3 %76.3 %
GMS-AGECTA25.3 %81.6 %
HAM-1712.6 %84.2 %
Others615.8 %100 %

Conclusions

The diagnosis of depression continues to be made primarily using diagnostic criteria. It is striking that the most commonly used test is the CES-D, given that the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) is usually the most popular scale for screening for late-life depression (Gana et al., 2017), which may be due to the fact that the studies analyzed have a more research than clinical purpose.

References

Gana, K., Bailly, N., Broc, G., Cazauvieilh, C., & Boudouda, N. E. (2017). The Geriatric Depression Scale: does it measure depressive mood, depressive affect, or both?. International journal of geriatric psychiatry, 32(10), 1150–1157.

Vieira, E. R., Brown, E., & Raue, P. (2014). Depression in older adults: screening and referral. Journal of geriatric physical therapy (2001), 37(1), 24–30.

Disclosure of Interest

None Declared

Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 66 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 31st European Congress of Psychiatry , March 2023 , pp. S942
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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