THE NIH CONSENSUS DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE ON THE DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF DEPRESSION IN LATE-LIFE - AN OVERVIEW

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Consensus Development Conferen ce on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Depression in Late Life took plac e on November 4-6, 1991. The full statement of the Consensus Panel, ch aired by Arnold J. Friedhoff, M.D., was published in a Consensus State ment and in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The purpo se of this article is to provide a brief overview of the planning for the Consensus Development Conference, with particular emphasis on the questions posed by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Plan ning Committee to members of the panel. This is followed by a brief sy nopsis of the panel's opinions on issues raised by the NIMH Planning C ommittee, as well as their opinions on the most promising issues for f uture research in late-life depression. The main purposes of the NIH C onsensus Development Conference were first, to translate research find ings into guidelines for clinical practice, so far as this is possible , and second, to suggest promising directions for the Nation's researc h agenda in late-life depression.