DEPRESSION AND COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT IN THE ELDERLY - A MULTICENTER STUDY

The present study, conducted in collaboration between the Departments of Psychiatry in Swiss Universities and the World Health Organization, had two main goals: to develop assessment methods which could subsequ ently be used in the Swiss centres in a standard manner; and to make a rrangements for continuing collaboration between the centres in Switze rland and the acquisition of new knowledge about the distinctions betw een depression and cognitive impairment. For this aim, three different groups of elderly patients of either sex were selected during the per iod of November 1989 to July 1991 for inclusion in the study. The firs t two groups included the first ten patients of either sex over 60 yea rs of age consecutively contacting the participating institutions and showing depression with or without clinically significant symptoms of cognitive impairment; the control group included patients showing no d epression or clinically significant symptoms of cognitive impairment. A total of 125 patients were included in the initial evaluation, 69 of which were reassessed at a seven-month follow up (on average). Each p atient was administered a number of clinician-rated or self-report ins truments for the assessment of depression, cognitive impairment, disab ilities, physical status and onset of disorders. The study has shown t hat a variety of instruments can be used for the reliable assessment o f depression or cognitive impairment in the elderly; but the instrumen ts for the assessment of depression differentiate only poorly between patients with or without cognitive impairment. Because of the importan ce of identifying both depressed and cognitively impaired patients amo ng the elderly, different assessment instruments targeted at the diffe rent symptom clusters need to be administered simultaneously.