Depression in Elderly People [antikvár]

Foreword Depression in the elderly is an underdiagnosed and undertreated disorder. If all forms of depression are included, the prevalence is as high as 15% in people over 65 years of age. There is a large heterogeneity in both aetiology and response to treatment of depression in the elderly compared with younger people, and the cause is often multifactorial. Because it has an atypical symptomatology and there is insufficient information about the disorder, patients and their relatives are not always aware that depression is present. The symptoms are instead regarded as part of normál ageing by local social services and generál practitioners. Today, treatment is available for depression in elderly people. If local social services provide a good social network, modern psychopharmacology (e.g. selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors) is applied and cognitive therapy, or possibly electroconvulsive therapy, is used in patients who do not respond to drug treatment alone, then depression in the elderly can be treated successfully. An important task is to spread information about depression in the elderly to the staff in outpatient services. In this book, Simon Lovestone and Róbert Howard present such information in a comprehensive, easily understandable way. Valuable advice is given for identification, diagnosis and treatment of the