CHRONIC MEDICAL ILLNESS IN PATIENTS WITH RECURRENT MAJOR DEPRESSION

The authors treated 115 elderly patients (ambulatory and without demen tia) with recurrent major depression, by means of combined nortriptyli ne and interpersonal psychotherapy. They contrasted Cumulative Illness Rating Scale-Geriatric (CIRS-G) scores (for medical burden) in recove red and nonrecovered patients and generated a Cox proportional-hazards model of time-to-remission. The authors found no association between pretreatment chronic medical burden and acute treatment outcome in rec overed (83 of 115) and nonrecovered patients and no relation of pretre atment CIRS-G scores with time-to-recovery. Findings support recent re commendations that practitioners be optimistic in treating elderly dep ressed, ambulatory patients whether or not significant medical burden coexists.