Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T10:14:18.988Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Late-Life Depressive Disorder in the Community

II. the Relationship between Psychiatric History, MMSE and Family History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Rob Van Ojen*
Affiliation:
Valerius Clinic, Amsterdam; Department of Psychiatry, Free University, The Netherlands
Chris Hooijer
Affiliation:
Valerius Clinic, Amsterdam; Department of Psychiatry, Free University, The Netherlands
Dick Bezemer
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Institute for Research in Extramural Medicine (EMGO), The Netherlands
Cees Jonker
Affiliation:
Valerius Clinic, Amsterdam; Department of Psychiatry, Free University, The Netherlands
Jaap Lindeboom
Affiliation:
Valerius Clinic, Amsterdam; Department of Psychiatry, Free University, The Netherlands
Willem Van Tilburg
Affiliation:
Valerius Clinic, Amsterdam; Department of Psychiatry, Free University, The Netherlands
*
Rob van Ojen, AMSTEL Project, Prins Hendriklaan 27–29, 1075 AZ Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Abstract

Background

In previous studies, dementia was linked to a family history of dementia and Down's syndrome. This study tested the hypothesis that late-life depression accompanied by cognitive impairment in elderly individuals with no history of psychiatric illness is also associated with these family histories.

Method

We investigated an age-stratified sample of 4051 elderly people in the community aged 65–84 (AMSTEL). The relationship between family history (CAMDEX questionnaire) and depression (GMS-AGECAT diagnosis) was studied.

Results

A family history of mental health problems was associated with all subtypes of depression. Family history of dementia was associated with depression in subjects with a psychiatric history, but a family history of Down's syndrome was only associated with the combination of depression and cognitive impairment in subjects with no history of psychiatric illness.

Conclusions

The heritability pattern confirms the concept of a dementia-related subtype of late-life depression.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexopoulos, G. S., Meyers, B. S., Young, R. C., et al (1988) Brain changes in geriatric depression. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 3, 157161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, R. P., Sweeney, J., Loutsch, E., et al (1984) Involutional melancholia revisited. American Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 2428.Google Scholar
Bulbena, A. & Berrios, G. E. (1986) Pseudodementia: Facts and figures. British Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 8794.Google Scholar
Burvill, P. W., Hall, W. D., Stampfer, H. G., et al (1989) A comparison of early-onset and late-onset depressive illness in the elderly. British Journal of Psychiatry, 155, 673679.Google Scholar
Chadwick, C. (on behalf of the MRC multicentre study group) (1992) The MRC multicentre study of cognitive functioning and aging. Neuroepidemiology, 11, 3743.Google Scholar
Coffey, C. E., Figiel, G. S., Djang, W. T., et al (1988) Leukoencephalopathy in elderly depressed patients referred for ECT. Biological Psychiatry, 24, 143161.Google Scholar
Cohen, R. M., Weingartner, H., Smallberg, S. A., et al (1982) Effort and cognition in depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 36, 593597.Google Scholar
Conwell, Y., Nelson, J. C., Kim, K. M., et al (1989) Depression in late life: age of onset as marker of a subtype. Journal of Affective Disorders, 17, 189195.Google Scholar
Copeland, J. R. M., Dewey, M. E. & Griffiths-Jones, H. M. (1986) A computerised psychiatric diagnostic system and case nomenclature for elderly subjects: GMS and AGECAT. Psychological Medicine, 16, 8999.Google Scholar
Copeland, J. R. M., Dewey, M. E., Henderson, A. S., et al (1988) The Geriatric Mental State used in the community: Replication studies of the computerized diagnosis AGECAT. Psychological Medicine, 18, 219223.Google Scholar
Duijn, C. M. van, Clayton, D., Chandra, V., et al (1991) Familial aggregation of Alzheimer's disease and related disorders: A collaborative re-analysis of case-control studies. International Journal of Epidemiology, 20, s13s20.Google Scholar
Figiel, G. S., Krishnan, K. R. R., Doraiswamy, P. M., et al (1991) Subcortical hyperintensities on brain magnetic resonance imaging: A comparison between late age onset and early onset elderly depressed subjects. Neurobiology of Aging, 26, 245247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Folstein, M., Folstein, F. & McHugh, P. R. (1975) Mini-mental state: a practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12, 189198.Google Scholar
Folstein, M. & McHugh, P. R. (1978) Dementia syndrome of depression. In Alzheimer's Disease: Senile Dementia and Related Disorders (Aging, Vol. 7) (eds Katzman, R., Terry, R. D. & Blick, K. L.). New York: Raven Press.Google Scholar
Fuhrer, R., Antonucci, T. C., Gagnon, M., et al (1992) Depressive symptomatology and cognitive functioning: an epidemiological survey in an elderly community sample in France. Psychological Medicine, 22, 159172.Google Scholar
Golinkoff, M. & Sweeney, J. A. (1989) Cognitive impairments in depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 17, 105112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Herrmann, N., Lieff, S. J. & Silberfeld, M. (1989) The effect of age of onset on depression in the elderly. Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology, 2, 140145.Google Scholar
Hooijer, C., Ojen, R. van, Jonker, C., et al (1994) Prevalence of depression in the elderly. A curvilinear story. In Health, Aging and Healing (eds Bergever, M. & Kanowski, S.). Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Jacoby, R. J. & Levy, R. (1980) Computed tomography in the elderly. 3. Affective disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 270275.Google Scholar
Kay, D. W. K. (1962) Outcome and cause of death in mental disorders of old age: a long-term follow-up of functional and organic psychosis. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 38, 249276.Google Scholar
Kendler, K. S., Neale, M. C., Kessler, R. C., et al (1992) A population-based twin study of major depression in women. Archives of General Psychiatry, 49, 257266.Google Scholar
Kendler, K. S., Kessler, R. C., Neale, M. C., et al (1993) The prediction of major depression in women: Toward an integrated etiologic model. American Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 11391148.Google Scholar
Koskinen, T. (1992) Pseudodementia as manifestation of depression in the elderly. Psychiatria Fennica, 23, 123129.Google Scholar
Launer, L. J., Dinkgreve, M. A. H. M., Jonker, C., et al (1993) Are age and education independent correlates of the Mini-Mental State performance of community-dwelling elderly? Journal of Gerontology, 48, 271277.Google Scholar
Launer, L. J., Wind, A. W. & Deeg, D. J. H. (1994) Non-response pattern and bias in a community-based cross-sectional study of cognitive functioning among the elderly. American Journal of Epidemiology, 139, 803812.Google Scholar
Martin, R. L., Gerteis, G. & Gabrielli, W. F. (1988) A family-genetic study of dementia of Alzheimer type. Archives of General Psychiatry, 45, 894900.Google Scholar
Mendlewicz, J. & Baron, M. (1981) Morbidity risks in subtypes of unipolar depressive illness: Differences between early and late onset forms. British Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 463466.Google Scholar
Pearlson, G. D., Rabins, P. V., Kim, W. S., et al (1989) Structural brain CT changes and cognitive deficits in elderly depressives with and without reversible dementia. Psychological Medicine, 19, 573584.Google Scholar
Rabins, P. V., Merchant, A. & Nestadt, G. (1984) Criteria for diagnosing reversible dementia caused by depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 144, 488492.Google Scholar
Reding, M., Haycox, J. & Blass, J. (1985) Depression in patients referred to a dementia clinic. Archives of Neurology, 42, 894897.Google Scholar
Roth, M., Tym, E., Mountjoy, C. Q., et al (1986) CAMDEX: A standardised instrument for the diagnosis of mental disorder in the elderly with special reference to the early detection of dementia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 149, 698709.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siu, A. L. (1991) Screening for dementia and investigating its clause. Annals of Internal Medicine, 115, 122132.Google Scholar
Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (1990) SPSS/PC + Advanced statistics 4.0. Chicago: SPSS, Inc.Google Scholar
Steingart, A. & Herrmann, N. (1991) Major depressive disorder in the elderly: The relationship between age of onset and cognitive impairment. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 6, 593598.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Von Dras, D. D. & Blumenthal, H. T. (1992) Dementia of the aged: Disease or atypical accelerated aging? Biopathological and psychological perspectives. Journal of the American Geriatric Society, 40, 285294.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.