Citation

Pellerin J, Boiffin A. Revue de Geriatrie 1999; 24(5): 375-376,378.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1999)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Depression in the elderly subject is essentially characterized by its frequency and the great variability of the clinical picture. When examining a sad elderly subject presenting with psychomotor retardation, it is important to be able to identify the signs and symptoms liable to orient the diagnosis toward depression. It is also appropriate to distinguish between the effects of age, those of any concomitant organic disease and those of the adaptational processes used by the subject entering a period of life characterized by the frequency of mourning, ruptures and losses. Once the diagnosis has been established, the optimum therapeutic strategy is to be evaluated with, in particular the aim of protecting the patient from excessive solitude and all forms of mental and physical pain. In particular the suicide risk must always be envisaged. Treatment itself is based on the use of antidepressant drugs devoid of anticholinergic properties. Concomitant administration of an anxiolytic must constitute an exception rather than a rule.

Language: fr

Keywords

antidepressant agent; article; depression; Depression; Elderly; gerontopsychiatry; human; mourning; psychomotor retardation; suicide; symptomatology