The course of depression in elderly subjects with and without dementia

Background: A persistent course of depression has been described in subject s with and without dementia. Up to the present it is unclear to what extent dementia affects the prognosis of depression. Method: At baseline and at 6 and 12 months follow-up AGECAT depression diagnoses were made in 49 subjec ts with and 72 subjects without DSM-III-R dementia living in homes for the elderly. Results: Adjusting for demographic characteristics and physical he alth, dementia was not associated with the severity of depression at follow up. The baseline depression severity and to a lesser extent somatic compla ints predicted a bad prognosis of depression in the total sample. Limitatio ns: Because of the high vulnerability of the residents the results cannot b e generalised to other populations of elderly subjects. Conclusion: Depress ion is persistent in residents of homes for the elderly. Dementia does not affect its course. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.