title: Elderly depressed patients: what are their views on treatment options?
abstract: The aim of this study was to explore attitudes of elderly patients with depression receiving secondary psychiatric care towards different types of treatment for depression. One hundred patients, recruited from a large teaching hospital in Birmingham, were subjected to structured interviews at which their attitudes towards the effectiveness, likelihood of causing side-effects and acceptability of anti-depressant medication, ECT and psychotherapy were measured on a five-point Likert scale. Psychotherapy was considered both effective and acceptable by our patients although it is not widely available across the UK. Anti-depressants were also considered to be effective and acceptable although likely to cause side-effects. However, our patients did not think highly of ECT, either in its effectiveness or acceptability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kuruvilla
authors.forename: C D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Fenwick
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Haque
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Vassilas
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001290:Attitude; D001530:Belgium; D003863:Depression / Q000628:therapy*; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D017060:Patient Satisfaction