PREDICTING THE COURSE OF DEPRESSION IN THE OLDER POPULATION - RESULTSFROM A COMMUNITY-BASED STUDY IN THE NETHERLANDS

This article is a report on the course of depressive syndromes in a co mmunity-based sample of older subjects in The Netherlands (n = 238). A fter baseline, the course of depression was assessed in five waves of follow-up measurements, covering 1 year. 52% of the subjects were neve r depressed; 16% suffered an incident depression, half of which remitt ed during the study; 8% had a depression at the start which remitted d uring the study; 14% were chronically depressed and in 10% the course was variable. Of those depressed at the start of the study, 32% remitt ed without relapse, 25% remitted but relapsed later and 43% were chron ically depressed. While demographic variables were not predictive, hea lth-related variables were predictive of both the onset and the course of depressive syndromes. Chronicity was associated with recent visits to general practitioners, indicating that treatment could have been p rovided relatively easily in many cases.