Affective disorders among elderly general practice patients. A two- phase survey in Brescia, Italy

We investigated the prevalence of depression among 255 elderly general practice patients and the practitioners' performance in identifying depression. Elderly patients attending 14 general practices entered a screening phase with GHQ-12 and MMSE. Those positive were then interviewed with GMS an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of psychiatry 1994-10, Vol.165 (4), p.533-537
Main Authors: Turrina, C, Caruso, R, Este, R, Lucchi, F, Fazzari, G, Dewey, ME, Ermentini, A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Affective disorders
Age Factors
Aged
Bias
Clinical Competence
Depressive Disorder - diagnosis
Depressive Disorder - epidemiology
Depressive Disorder - therapy
Emotional disorders
Family physicians
Family Practice - standards
Family Practice - statistics & numerical data
Female
General practice
Geriatric Assessment
Geriatrics
Humans
Italy - epidemiology
Male
Medical screening
Mental depression
Mini-Mental State Examination
Older people
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:We investigated the prevalence of depression among 255 elderly general practice patients and the practitioners' performance in identifying depression. Elderly patients attending 14 general practices entered a screening phase with GHQ-12 and MMSE. Those positive were then interviewed with GMS and HAS. DSM-III-R major depression affected 22.4%, dysthymic disorder 6.3%, not otherwise specified (n.o.s.) depression 7.1%. General practitioners performed fairly well: identification index 88.4%, accuracy 0.49, bias 1.85. Depression was markedly high. A selective progression of depressed elderly from the community to general practitioners is implied.
ISSN:0007-1250
1472-1465
DOI:10.1192/bjp.165.4.533