Symptoms of depression and recent life events in the community elderly

Abstract

Studied 188 elderly living in the community in terms of the relationship of recent life events to symptoms of depression. Three discriminators of depression were found among 12 events that occurred in the past year. Ss with greater depressive symptomatology had been involved in more arguments, experienced more deaths of relatives and friends, and among the white elderly, reported more accidents among relatives and friends. This group also reported experiencing a higher magnitude of stress. The relevance of these findings for clinical diagnosis and treatment planning is explored.