Correlates of Beck Depression Inventory scores in an ambulatory elderly population: symptoms, diseases, laboratory values, and medications.
BACKGROUND
Depression is one of the most important psychiatric disorders of older people. Between 1% and 5% of elderly persons who live in the community have major depression. Depressed elderly people are thought to be more likely to complain of symptoms such as headache, constipation, and pain than of disordered mood. The purpose of this study was to determine whether certain symptoms, diseases, or drugs used by older people correlate with scores on the Beck Depression Inventory.


METHODS
Beck Depression Inventory scores were obtained in an ambulatory elderly population to identify correlates with self-reported signs, symptoms, diseases, drugs, and laboratory values. A total of 1048 participants were studied, including 712 women and 336 men.


RESULTS
In this study, 13.7% of the men and 20.7% of the women had scores suggesting possible depression. A linear regression model revealed eight factors of significance in predicting scores on the Beck Depression Inventory. The most important predictors were the total number of symptoms reported by the patient (P less than .0001), and subjective complaints of memory loss (P less than .0003) and of pain in the abdomen (P less than .0004).


CONCLUSIONS
Clinically, the results of this study suggest that depression is underdiagnosed in older patients and that multiple somatic symptoms are the best indicator of depression in this population.
Stewart
R B
RB
College of Pharmacy, University of Florida, Gainesville.
Blashfield
R
R
Hale
W E
WE
Moore
M T
MT
May
F E
FE
Marks
R G
RG
D015746:Abdominal Pain / Q000150:complications; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003863:Depression / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004906:Erythrocyte Count; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011594:Psychometrics; D012044:Regression Analysis