The course of depression in elderly subjects with and without dementia.
BACKGROUND
A persistent course of depression has been described in subjects with and without dementia. Up to the present it is unclear to what extent dementia affects the prognosis of depression.


METHODS
At baseline and at 6 and 12 months follow-up AGECAT depression diagnoses were made in 49 subjects with and 72 subjects without DSM-III-R dementia living in homes for the elderly.


RESULTS
Adjusting for demographic characteristics and physical health, dementia was not associated with the severity of depression at follow up. The baseline depression severity and to a lesser extent somatic complaints predicted a bad prognosis of depression in the total sample.


CONCLUSIONS
Because of the high vulnerability of the residents the results cannot be generalised to other populations of elderly subjects.


CONCLUSIONS
Depression is persistent in residents of homes for the elderly. Dementia does not affect its course.
Janzing
J
J
Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9101, 6500 HB, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Teunisse
R
R
Bouwens
P
P
van 't Hof
M
M
Zitman
F
F
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D015995:Prevalence; D011379:Prognosis; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012016:Reference Values; D012720:Severity of Illness Index