DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS IN THE VERY ELDERLY - THEIR PREVALENCE AND SIGNIFICANCE

A community sample of 1173 very elderly people (aged over 77) was inte rviewed by trained lay interviewers using a structured interview, incl uding questions relating to emotional and physical health and social c ircumstances and the Mini-Mental State Examination. Depressive symptom s such as loss of energy and feelings of tension and irritability were found frequently. High scores for depressive symptoms were associated with female sex, poor subjective physical health, loneliness and use of statutory services. Depressive symptom score was not found to be as sociated with age. Although only 6% of the sample described feeling de pressed most of the time, 21% of respondents admitted that they someti mes felt that life was not worth living.