Citation

Ko SM. Ann. Acad. Med. Singapore 1994; 23(3): 367-370.

Affiliation

Department of Psychological Medicine, National University of Singapore.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1994, Academy of Medicine, Singapore)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

7944252

Abstract

Depression is a common condition in the geriatric population. A retrospective study of 30 elderly patients suffering from neurotic depression, who were admitted consecutively to a general hospital psychiatric ward, showed a predominance of females (n = 21) over males (n = 9) and young-old (65 to 74 years, n = 22) more than old-old (75 years or over, n = 8). Their ages ranged from 65 to 85 years with a mean of 71.6 years, SD 5.5 years. Co-existing physical disorders were present in every patient, the average being 1.8 per patient, and half (n = 15) had two or more physical disorders. Cardiovascular diseases (e.g. ischaemic heart disease and hypertension) and diabetes mellitus were present in about seven-eighths of the patients. The two commonest symptoms were low mood (n = 18, 60%) and vague somatic complaints inexplicable by any physical pathology (n = 19, 63%). Sleep disturbance bothered 12 patients (40%), while nine (30%) had attempted suicide. Twenty patients (67%) were prescribed antidepressants and 13 (43%) received benzodiazepines in low dosages, mainly as hypnotics. Electroconvulsive therapy was necessary for two patients with high suicidal risk. The mean duration of admission was 15.3 days, SD 12.9 days.

Language: en