Affective Disorders Among Elderly General Practice Patients

Abstract

Background We investigated the prevalence of depression among 255 elderly general practice patients and the practitioners' performance in identifying depression. Method Elderly patients attending 14 general practices entered a screening phase with GHQ-12 and MMSE. Those positive were then interviewed with GMS and HAS. Results DSM-III-R major depression affected 22.4%, dysthymic disorder 6.3%, not otherwise specified (n.o.s.) depression 7.1 %. General practitioners performed fairly well: identification index 88.4%, accuracy 0.49, bias 1.85. Conclusions Depression was markedly high. A selective progression of depressed elderly from the community to general practitioners is implied.